Dimension Merging
by Sarge Ray
Summary: The third and final part of the Dimensional Trilogy ends with a BANG. Link and Sonic must stop a universal threat or risk the destruction of the universe. COMPLETE!
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Prologue**

Long ago, there was a realm in one place you could never imagine: the center of the universe. In that realm, a whole menagerie of dragon-like creatures thrived. Then one day, these creatures began an attempt to burn everything they could find into dust. They almost succeeded when the gods punished them and they vanished without a trace, but not before making an imprint on the world around them. One of those markings existed in the realm of animals in a place called the Water Shrine, and inside, the stone kept a powerful magic. A magic so powerful that it could keep the universe of its creation from becoming confused with the others and causing the end of everything. And for more than fifty millennia, it had been kept safe. Then, everything changed.

There was a great demon that was so evil that it made Ganondorf look like a mere housefly compared to a serial killer and was the leader of this group of dragon-like creatures. The dragons were so powerful that they caused mass-extinctions, almost irrecoverable damage, and the death of several species. This demon had started to gather followers, either controlling them by magic or threatening their lives to do so. Ever since his kind was banished to the center of the universe, the best he could do was use the minds of others to do his work for him. His first servant was an undead cat and he tricked him by deception. When this one was killed, he immediately found a dinosaur bounty hunter and chose him to follow in the cat's footsteps. This servant almost succeeded, but he too was killed. However, now he proved he didn't need any of their help. He would unleash his army on his own.

"Finally…" A demonic voice hissed, "After fifty millennia, I can break free with my brethren. The dimensions are going to be mine!"

A smaller figure slunk up to the shadow and seemed to crouch into a low bow like a slave before its master. The larger one turned with a fleck of curiosity in his large orange eyes.

"Ryu, our dimension gate is ready for use." It informed him.

"Good job. I, as king of the Dragonoids, will be the first to test our newfound magic." Ryu commanded.

With one movement, Ryu stood up and raised a large hand into the air to fire a huge "beam" as thick as a tree. The beam shot high into the air until its energy particles spread into a kind of wormhole the color of fire. Ryu grinned a smile you could have seen in the dark as he seemed to levitate in the air.

"It is almost time. Go, captain. Gather the faithful. As soon as the dimensions merge, we will be FREE." Ryu barked.

"Yes sir" The captain said as he ran off to gather more troops.

Ryu levitated and ended up sucked into the vortex. It was a sensation he was easily used to and when he came out, he saw where he was. There was a blue planet; he was in space. This did not worry him though. He didn't have to worry about losing oxygen or his body fluids boiling over in the airless vacuum. Since his species lived in space for so long, he was used to this kind of stuff as he took off at very high speeds, probably close to the speed of a comet: thousands of miles per hour.

"This will be known as the dawn of the Dragonoids." Ryu said as his whole body seemed to become engulfed by a shield of flame.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Out in the world**

It was another great day on Great Fox ever since Krystal announced that she was three months pregnant. Now that five months passed in this world, it was becoming increasingly obvious now. Krystal made her way down the hall and Falco passed by. Falco's eyes widened and he stifled a laugh just when Slippy came down to meet him.

"Whoa, lady, you're getting huge! At this rate, you'll be bigger than the arwing." Falco joked.

"Oh, Falco, give it a rest." Slippy said as he slugged the bird's arm.

"It's okay, Slippy. I'm a little uncomfortable with this too. I don't think I'm used to being this big." Krystal said as she put her hands on her round belly.

Falco looked for a second as Krystal became trapped in a maternal moment.

"Yeah, yeah. We heard about the baby. Now, c'mon! Fox says he has an idea." Falco said, beckoning forward.

When everyone was in the main control room, they all took their seats. Falco hopped in and propped his feet up on the table. Krystal took her new spot right next to Fox's seat while Slippy sat next to a snoozing Peppy. Peppy woke with a start (and a snort) just when Fox raced through the door. He looked like he had just won a million dollars, but Peppy guessed it was something even better.

"So, Fox? Why'd you drag us all here anyway?" Falco asked, shrugging.

"Well, Falco, the reason I 'dragged you all here' is because…I think we should go back to Hyrule and visit Link. Y'know, kind of…a vacation of sorts and for Krystal, it's safe to say it could be a baby shower." Fox suggested, causing Krystal to feel rather warm.

"Hyrule? You mean with that Link guy?" Slippy asked.

"Yes. He did help us out with Allos, so I think it's fair to say that he would enjoy a visit from the Star Fox Team." Fox reminded.

"Oh. Well, I suppose we could…" Falco began, but Peppy cut him off.

"I say it's a good idea, Fox. I'm sure we would all like to see our friend again."

Fox nodded in agreement and turned to Slippy. 

"Alright, Slip. You better get that Dimension Ring ready. We're all going." Fox suggested.

"Right away, Fox." Slippy said as he raced off.

Falco shook his head with a shrug.

"Fox, you're the only man I know who would do somethin' like this."

In another dimension, Sonic the hedgehog was hanging out with his best bud Tails. The two-tailed fox had recently received a telescope and he had a lot of fun looking at the stars and planets. After a while, Tails raced over to Sonic, looking like an energetic three-year-old.

"Thanks, Sonic! I just LOVE this telescope!" Tails said as he hopped up and down, excitedly.

"I knew you'd like that, buddy." Sonic thought to himself, "It's a shame that Knuckles and all your other buddies couldn't come over. Shadow came over, but he's just been standing there since he got here."

"Ah, that's okay. You're the best friend a guy could ask for." Tails said, shaking Sonic's hand.

Some thirty feet away from Sonic was his black counterpart, Shadow. Ever since their last adventure through the dimensions, he had been spending a lot of time looking at the stars at night and the clouds during the day. He only had one person on his mind whenever he did this. Sonic wanted him to talk about it, but it pained the black hedgehog to do so.

"I'll never forget you…Zelda. I hope Link is keeping you happy like he promised me." Shadow thought as he closed his eyes.

It was true that Shadow liked Zelda, but he knew he couldn't have her. The reason he liked her, if you remember, was that she reminded him of Maria: an old friend that passed away. He vowed that he would return and that they would meet again.

Just when Shadow was beginning to calm his mind, Tails spotted something.

"Hey, Sonic! What's that?" He asked.

Sonic went over to the telescope and peered through the lens with one eye. For a minute, he couldn't see anything and was pretty curious on what Tails was talking about.

"Uh, what am I supposed to be looking at, buddy?" Sonic asked.

Tails moved Sonic aside and peered into the telescope. He adjusted it and then allowed Sonic to look into it again. What the blue hedgehog saw was somewhat horrific.

It was a kind of comet surrounded by a deep red cloud. It couldn't be the Black Comet, it was deterred some time ago thanks to him and Shadow. As he tried to adjust the lens for a closer look, he saw that the comet looked like it was ALIVE. It was heading in a direction Sonic knew all-too-well. That was where the Arwing II came a while ago.

"OH MY GOSH! Tails! We need to find the Chaos Emeralds and get going!" Sonic said in a very desperate tone.

"Why? Is something wrong with that comet?" Tails asked as he scratched his head.

"Tails, that's the same direction where Fox and Link came from! That…thing is no comet. It's alive! That thing is going right to Hyrule!" Sonic said, even more urgently if that was possible.

Upon hearing those words, Shadow acted up for the first time since who-knows-when. At first, he was just standing there like a zombie. But when he heard the word "Hyrule", he almost instantly changed from wonder to worry.

"Hyrule? If you're going there, count me in!" Shadow said as he raised a fist.

Sonic was slightly shocked. Ever since their meeting with Fox and Link when Shadow found out that Zelda didn't accompany the hylian hero, he either didn't talk or kept his conversations short. Of course, that was always a part of his nature.

Sonic shrugged and uneasily said, "Okay then."

The blue blur looked out into the world and seemed to concentrate hard on where the emeralds were. This was going to be one tough challenge.

"I'm going to find the Chaos Emeralds. If I'm right, they will warp me through the dimensions. It'll take time. But with Shadow, we'll find it in no time." Sonic said to pretty much no one.

Shadow took off in the opposite direction from Sonic and the hunt was on.

Dimensions away, Link was racing off to the castle. For the last two and a half years, he had had several adventures through the dimensions and now he thought he could take it easy. He had fought Concolor, the ferocious feline that experimented with the dimensions to try and bring back Ganon. And he defeated Allos, the bounty hunter that actually did what his predecessor failed to do; and he had to fight Ganon for the second time in his life. Ever since that adventure, he had actually proposed to Zelda and she had accepted without him even asking. Now that he had a wife, he had new responsibilities to take care of. During the past nine months, the happy couple had done virtually everything together. And about a month later, they found out that she was bearing a child. Still, Link had to get back to the castle as soon as he could.

"Whew! I thought I was done for with that monster. Zelda's going to kill me; better hope that she's not in one of those mood swings…" Link said to himself.

He was about halfway there when there appeared to be a huge gust of wind. Link looked up and saw what appeared to be a big, electric blue portal. He remembered seeing something similar, but this one was much larger.

"This looks familiar…" Link said, remembering that fateful day.

Somewhere back at Hyrule Castle, Zelda looked out the window and saw the portal. Even from the castle, she could see it.

"Is this what I think it is?" She asked herself.

Without another word, she hurried off as fast as her swollen womb would allow her. It took about half an hour, but she finally found Link and when she looked up, she almost fainted.

An enormous flying object was flying out of the portal like a pterodactyl flying out of a cloudbank and it was moving. It slowly flew to the borders of Hyrule. Then, slowly, it sank past the mountain range.

"Did you see that?" Zelda asked, holding Link's shoulder.

"Of course he did." A voice said.

Link whirled around and almost knocked Zelda over to see the Star Fox team right behind him.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Rain on the parade**

Link was so happy to see Fox again, he couldn't restrain himself. He sprinted over to him and gave him a bear hug.

"How are ya' doing?" Fox said, cheerfully.

"Oh, I've been great. As you can see, Zelda and I are married and…" Link began, but Fox cut him off.

"Having a baby? Great! Krystal's having one too."

Zelda spoke up for the first time and asked, "When's she expecting?"

"Uh…'bout a month now." Falco said as he looked at an invisible watch.

"That means we're going to have our baby at the same time!" Zelda said, excitedly.

"I guess we could stay that long. I do want to see that moment and we've got nothing better to do. What could happen?" Peppy said.

However, Peppy was wrong. Something WOULD happen that would take away this time of euphoria.

Back in Sonic's world, Sonic and Shadow finally found the Chaos Emeralds and had to act fast. Sonic put the emeralds in a circle with Shadow right next to him. Tails had a strange device in his hand and was monitoring the energy flow.

"Okay, guys. You're ready. The emeralds will take you right to the place you want." Tails told them.

Sonic nodded and Shadow did too. They then put their hands into the middle of the circle and closed their eyes in focus. In a flash of rainbow light, Sonic's fur turned the color of pure gold and Shadow's turned the color of platinum. As the almost-infinite power of the emeralds flowed through their veins, they pulled their arms back and shouted two words.

"CHAOS CONTROL!!!!"

In a flash of gold and silver light, they vanished completely.

"I hope you guys can do this…" Tails said, with angst.

A week had passed in Hyrule and the group was enjoying a good night, laying on their backs and looking at the stars. Then, everything changed.

A red speck of light was drawing closer to the planet at a phenomenal rate and Falco's eagle eyes quickly caught sight of it. Link noticed it too and immediately sat bolt upright.

"Hey, Fox, what's that?" Falco asked as he pointed at it.

Fox shot upward and tried to focus, but it was a little too late and the "comet" hit the ground, kicking up a huge cloud of dust. At first, there was absolute silence, but then an earthshaking roar shattered the silence. The noise was so loud, everyone had to cover their ears and this bloodcurdling roar sounded worse than anything they had ever experienced.

"AAAAHH! WHAT COULD MAKE THAT?! IT CAN'T BE A DINOSAUR!" Slippy said in a shout.

Then, the thing that made the roar came out of the dust and reared up to its full height of twelve or twenty feet high. This thing had the body shape of a man, but he had a tail with something like an arrowhead on the tip, which was covered in several, foot-long spikes. He had massive feet, each having three-clawed feet like a dinosaur's. He had massive wings the size of a small biplane's and had a few small holes in it; signs that he had seen battle and lived. It had a thick neck and a head that looked very lizardlike with a small, beak-like protrusion on the upper lip. There were also several more rows of bronze-colored spines that began at the back of his head and went all the way to his tail, turning the tail itself into a weapon easily as good as his teeth. His massive arms were very muscular and ended in hands the size of a giant-screen TV with claws the size of swords. He was clad in dark purple robes that went from his waist and ended just past his knees, while the upper body simply revealed an alligator-like belly that was pale yellow. This thing wore special boots with holes that made way for his toes and it had eyes the color of fire.

The thing produced a low growl as it slowly thundered toward the frightened group, each step almost shaking the earth. Then, it stopped just feet away from them and stood with its muscular arms to its sides and its feet apart.

"What the HECK is THAT?!" Falco asked, very surprised at this being.

"Not 'what'. WHO? And the answer is: My name is RYU." The thing said in a deep, growling tone.

Ryu then fired a large beam into the air and, for a while, there was only silence. Then a white portal opened up and, with a scream, out came Ganondorf in his human form. Ganondorf landed with a "THUD" that could be heard a mile away and got to his feet, very happy to see that he was free.

"Finally I'm…WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE GODDESSES?!" Ganondorf said when he saw the giant dragon.

"Now, hand over your Key Item and I'll leave peacefully." Ryu said as he held out a hand, expecting someone to put something in it and wearing an expression as solid as stone.

When they didn't give him anything, or even answer, he spoke in a half-roar.

"HAND OVER YOUR TRIFORCE OR I WILL TAKE THEM FROM YOU!" He barked.

Ganondorf, outraged at this, put his hand up, showing the Triforce of Power. He was NOT going to let some lizard try to tell him what to do. He put his limbs to his body and then pulled them apart. A second later, he had turned into Ganon, the most savage beast ever to walk Hyrule. He was as big as Ryu, but the dragon man was still holding out his hand, like he was waiting for someone to hand him something.

"You want my Triforce of Power? COME AND TAKE IT THEN!!" Ganon roared.

Ryu slowly put his arm down and calmly stated, "As you wish."

It happened too quick for the naked eye to see. Ryu had crossed the distance between him and Ganon, which was more than three hundred feet, and smashed a great fist into Ganon's piggish face. The impact almost sounded like a bomb going off and Ganon was left on his back, surprised that Ryu had crossed the distance in such a short time. The great beast got to his feet, charged, and swung his sword at Ryu only to see the massive dragon duck under it and slam a spike-covered tail into his face. The spikes left sizeable marks in Ganon's face and Ganon actually clutched his face, allowing Ryu to sprint over to him and dig his sharp teeth into the king of evil's shoulder. Ganon howled in even more pain as he flailed his swords around, trying to make the dragon demon release him. It didn't work. Ryu finished biting him and seized Ganon by his mane of hair so he could throw Ganon ten feet backward. Ganon got up and swung at his opponent, but Ryu simply raised a hand and seized Ganon's wrist. Ganon stared in great surprise as Ryu twisted his wrist and punched him in the chin so hard, it almost broke his mandible. When Ganon recovered and swung again, Ryu spread a pair of wings more than eighty feet from wingtip to wingtip. Ganon didn't even touch his opponent as Ryu took off through the air and seemingly vanished. Ganon, completely surprised as to how fast this creature was, looked around wildly to try and find the opponent he was going to slaughter.

"Look behind you, imbecile." A growling voice snarled calmly.

Ganon whirled around only to have Ryu's foot smash into his face and send him just ten yards behind the frightened spectators. Ryu touched down as he watched his opponent struggle to his feet and trudge toward him. After stifling a laugh, Ryu spoke again.

"You're not so tough. And you're supposed to be the most powerful creature in Hyrule? What a joke. Let me show you a REAL attack!" Ryu snarled as Ganon got up.

In another movement, Ryu spread his giant wings, spread out his arms, and breathed fire into the air. At first, there was nothing, but then a pillar of fire came down from the sky and engulfed Ganon completely.

"He defeated Ganon like he was NOTHING and it took us HOURS to beat him." Fox said in pure shock.

When the flames cleared, Ganon fell to the ground and began to pant like a dog that had just run about three miles. Ryu strode over to Ganon and placed his reptilian claws on Ganon's ape-like hand. He then lifted the claws off Ganon's hand and out came the golden triangle that was the Triforce of Power. Ganon, deprived of his triforce, resumed the form of Ganondorf.

Ryu smirked and put forward the Triforce of Power. Instantly, Link and Zelda's triforce pieces acted up and left their owners' hands. The triforce formed and Ryu clutched it in his hand like you would a strawberry before opening a red portal, sending Ganondorf back through it.

He simply said, "You will only have your triforce when it magically leaves my grasp, upstart weakling."

Ryu then caught sight of the fearful spectators in front of him and grinned, showing off every one of his T-rex-like teeth.

"That's right, pathetic life forms. Bow before the supreme life forms: The Dragonoids." Ryu commanded as he pointed his index finger at them, "But should you disobey our orders, you will feel our fiery wrath."

Then, without further hesitation, Ryu took off and vanished in a flash of red light.

Link, Zelda, and the Star Fox Team stared blankly. They had just seen someone with the Triforce in his hands and simply waved it aside as though it were nothing.

"Huh? Why didn't he use the power?" Link asked out loud.

"Isn't it obvious?" Fox asked, "He defeated Ganon without getting so much as a bruise. Therefore, he doesn't need its power."

"Well, then why would he want it then?" Falco asked, obviously not getting it.

"Even I don't know that." Zelda said, looking at the ground and shaking her head, "But there must be a reason why that…Dragonoid came here. If he wanted to make sure Ganon didn't get out, then he's doing a good job: Ganondorf can't get out now."

Ganondorf arrived in the void of the sacred realm and threw his fist forward, as though he was punching something invisible.

"I can't believe I lost to that oversized lizard!" Ganondorf roared.

He tried to shoot a spell through the air, but seeing as his Triforce was gone, he couldn't do it.

"Zip it and save your energy." An unknown voice said, somewhat annoyed.

Ganondorf could only guess that this was the Goddesses speaking to him and simply began to pout like a two-year-old.

"What's going to happen? Without the Triforce, the people of Hyrule will become sitting ducks!" Link said, very worried.

A flash of light came in and everyone was momentarily blinded. When the light cleared, Link opened his eyes to see two familiar hedgehogs.

"Hey, Link! Long time, no see."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Chaos Control**

It was quite a surprise to see Sonic and Shadow, seeing as they had appeared from nowhere. However, Sonic was simply grinning like it was the simplest thing in the world.

"How did you…" Link began, but Sonic cut him off.

"A little thing called 'Chaos Control'. With it, Shadow and I can travel dimensions without even lifting a finger." Sonic explained. "Isn't that right, Shadow?"

Shadow didn't answer. His eyes were stuck on Zelda and so wide, Sonic could have sworn they would have dried out. Zelda was a lot bigger than Shadow last remembered her. Sonic knew what his black counterpart was thinking about and put a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm so sorry, Shadow. But for them, time went on quicker than we imagined." Sonic apologized, but Shadow simply brushed Sonic's hand off and skulked off.

Link tried to go after him, but Sonic stopped him.

"Let him go. He just needs to recollect himself." Sonic said in a much wiser tone than he normally used.

"So, what did you come here for?" Link asked.

"Well," Sonic said, "As I was looking through a telescope, I saw a comet streaking through the sky. I noticed it was going the exact same direction you and Fox came from, so I took it was going to Hyrule. What was weird about the comet was that it was…alive."

"You mean that 'comet' that turned into something called a Dragonoid?" Fox asked, coming into the picture.

"WHAT?!" Sonic asked in confusion, "The comet hit here and turned into WHAT?"

"After that comet struck here, it turned out to be a living creature that referred to itself as a 'Dragonoid'. Does that ring a bell?" Fox said, obviously wanting information.

"No." Sonic answered, "But what happened when it arrived here?"

Zelda walked into the conversation and answered, apparently still in shock.

"First, it revealed itself as a black dragon by the name of Ryu. Then, he released Ganon and asked him to give him the triforce." Zelda told him.

"Ganon? You mean that guy Concolor planned to release?" Sonic asked.

Zelda nodded and continued.

"When Ganon refused, Ryu fought him and walked out without a scratch. After he took Ganon's piece of the Triforce, he took mine as well as Link's. Strangely, he didn't even bother using its power to grant its owner a wish. He just took it and flew off."

Sonic dipped his head in thought and a solemn look crossed his normally cocky face.

"I've never heard of this guy. But given his choice, I'd say he's not exactly friendly if he simply took your triforce without question. We must stop him!" Sonic said, his fist held in front of him.

"I suppose we have to go now, huh?" Link asked, changing the subject.

Sonic nodded and gathered the emeralds; a sign that it was time for another adventure through the dimensions. Link was prepared, but now wasn't exactly the time he wanted to go. He had a family, but he decided that a safe universe for his family to live in was more important than staying home.

They hadn't gone two steps when a deep red portal opened up and a strange dragon creature came out. It was tall enough to look Fox in the eye and the Star Fox leader fell back at the sight. The dragon was humanoid like Ryu, but nowhere near as big…or ugly for that matter. The creature had what appeared to be a small rhino horn on its nose and a pair of fangs jutted from his upper jaw like a saber-tooth cat. It let out a loud, grating noise, a screech that sounded worse than nails on a chalkboard. It was, as far as Fox could see, a kind of scout or soldier.

"WHAT THE?!" Falco yelled in surprise.

The creature flipped into the air, producing a large sword in the process and went into a spin like a saw blade. Falco practically tackled Link to the ground trying to dodge the attack. The dragon tried again, but Sonic's red boot found its way to the creature's jaw in a flying kick. The dragon snarled, wrapped its claws around Sonic's head, and threw him a good six feet away. It then opened its mouth and let loose, not a screech, but a jet of fire. Zelda didn't have time to get away, because she tripped and she awaited her fiery death. Shadow heard the whole thing and quickly teleported to Zelda, grabbed her, and teleported to safety.

He then put her somewhere safe and said, "Stay here."

The dragon tried a hacking slash at Slippy, but the frog jumped and the blade scraped the soles of his shoes. The dragon forgot about the frog and took a good look at Krystal before emitting its fire breath. Shadow raced in front of the blue fox and put his hands forward, his palms facing up. The fire splashed harmlessly off, allowing Shadow to grab Krystal and teleported her to where Zelda was.

The dragon flew spun through the air like a dancer and planted a kick into Falco's side. However, the minute he landed, Fox was there to meet him with a flying kick. The dragon fell on his back, but then got up and performed a sweep with its tail. Fox fell to the ground and the creature towered over him. He then spoke for the first and last time.

"Now, no one will stop Lord Ryu!" It growled as it raised its blade.

Suddenly, all the air went out of the dragon's lungs and it fell backward with a hole in its stomach. Fox looked to see Shadow with a glowing energy spear in his hand. He then dispelled it and put his hand down.

"I'm NOT going to let you die, Fox." Shadow said.

The black hedgehog then went off and helped Sonic back to his feet. Sonic grinned and then pointed something out.

"Hey, Shadow. You saved Zelda." He said, with a positive attitude.

"That's enough. You and Link have to go." Shadow said as he looked Sonic in the eye.

Sonic, confused, asked, "Shadow, aren't you coming?"

Shadow simply said, "I'll stay here and keep Zelda safe."

Zelda was touched by these words and actually placed a hand on Shadow's shoulder.

"Thank you, Shadow." She said, in a quiet voice.

Shadow closed his eyes like you would when you have a painful memory. He then opened his eyes to see the rest of the Star Fox team with him.

"We'll stay here with Zelda in case more of those creatures show up." Fox said in a very determined tone.

"Besides, someone needs to be here when the babies arrive." Peppy said, having a point.

Link shook the tears out of his eyes and turned to Sonic.

"Ready for Chaos Control?" He asked.

Sonic nodded.

"Sure. I'll be ready in a minute or two. Just get what you need." Sonic said as he slowly began to charge energy.

Link thought and then went to his house for a few supplies. He got his bow and one thing he thought would come in handy: the Light Arrow. Then, he got an idea. If the Light Arrow wasn't enough, then he'd need something he used in his last adventure. He took out the green crystal that held the magic of Farore's Wind and clenched it in his fist. In less than a second, he was right behind the door of Time, the blade of Evil's Bane buried deep in the pedestal. He took it in both hands and took it out with a grunt. There was a small flash of blue light and then a flash of green and Link had finally vanished.

Link returned to Hyrule Field and Sonic took a good look at him. He then noticed that his sword was no longer the Gilded Sword he used to wield.

"Hey, Link, what's with your new blade?" Sonic asked, scratching his head.

"This sword will come in handy later. It might give us an edge in fighting the Dragonoids." Link filled in.

"Sounds reasonable. Now, let's get going." Sonic said as a yellow energy began to surround him.

Sonic closed his eyes as he took in the power of the Chaos Emeralds and turned to his Super form. He then grabbed Link's hand and focused hard.

"Chaos…CONTROL!" He said.

In a flash of rainbow lights, the hylian and the hedgehog were gone.

"Link…be careful." Zelda said as a single, silvery tear flowed down her cheek.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Meet the general

It all happened in less than a second of rainbow light and Link felt his feet touch ground. Unfortunately, they weren't at Tails' place. They were in some grassy hill and Sonic seemed somewhat embarrassed.

"Uh, hehe…Sorry, Link. Guess my teleportation was a bit off." Sonic apologized.

"Don't worry. At least I'm not a hedgehog like last time." Link said as he looked at himself to find that he was Hylian.

They then strode off at a slow and steady pace to Station Square to find Tails' house. They hadn't gone a few steps when something zoomed past them. Link virtually tackled Sonic to the ground trying to dive out of the way.

"What kind of hedgehog was THAT?!" Link asked, very irritated at this…thing.

He looked up and then it hit him. A hedgehog didn't have feathers or a flying board. The thing that raced by slowed to a halt next to Sonic. It had Sonic's build and his feathers were similar to Sonic's spikes. It was very birdlike in appearance with a sharp beak and goggles over its eyes.

The bird then said, in a rather cocky and somewhat rude voice, "Hey, Sonic! Who's your friend?"

Sonic rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Hello, Jet. It's SO good to see you." He said, in a very sarcastic way.

Jet looked down from his board and saw Link on the ground. He smirked through his sharp beak and said something very rude.

"Ha! I didn't know you had ground-kissing friends, too!"

Link gritted his teeth and clenched his fists.

"What did you call me, you flying turkey?" Link asked, fingering his sword.

Sonic took a hold of Link's arm and held him back before he did something stupid.

"Don't do it, Link. He's not worth it. Besides…" Sonic said, but on the last word, it was a whisper. "It's me he wants. He's always wanted to beat me in a race."

Link nodded as a sly grin spread across his face and winked at Sonic. Sonic winked back and then turned to face Jet.

Sonic then turned to Jet and asked, "Wanna race?"

Jet nodded and said, "Don't mind if I do."

The two took off with Jet still on his board. Link could only trail their dust clouds and struggle to keep up.

Two beams of light streaked across the grassy plain; one blue, the other green. It was a race between two rivals trying to prove who was superior: the air or the earth. The two had barely started going their fastest when suddenly, Sonic stopped. Sonic had seen something that Jet was pretty oblivious to.

"Jet! STOP!" Sonic warned.

The blue blur noticed that the same portal had appeared in the sky, but Jet chose to ignore him. The green bird turned to look at this pathetic ground-kisser and chose to taunt him.

"What? Afraid you're going to…" Jet began, but then he hit something and crashed. "Lose?"

Jet looked up to see a giant dragon. This wasn't Ryu, but it was definitely one of those Dragonoids. It was red with gold horns around his face like a lion's mane. Smoke was billowing from its nostrils and its wings were just like Ryu's minus the holes in the wings. Its head was more like a dinosaur's and it had eyes that seemed to pierce his soul.

"After the giant emerald, too? Those pathetic morons were just as persistent." The dragon spoke in the usual cold tone.

"Um, Heheheh. S-sorry about stubbing your toe, s-s-s-sir." Jet stuttered.

The dragon raised its foot and brought it down before saying, "None shall oppose Red Wyvern!"

Jet flipped out of the way, but his board wasn't so lucky. The foot crushed it like a tin can and there were spare parts everywhere like some juvenile delinquent had just finished dismantling it with his bare hands.

"NO! NOT MY GEAR!!!" Jet screamed as his eyes flooded over.

The crying lasted a little too long and a foot narrowly missed the green bird. Sonic had just rushed up and grabbed him before he got crushed.

"I told you to stop! Don't you LISTEN?!" Sonic scolded.

"Hey, Sonic, it's not my fault I DIDN'T SEE IT!" Jet shot back.

"I'll be right back." Sonic said as he dropped Jet, painfully, on the ground and raced off again.

Red Wyvern saw the blue blur race off and spread his mighty wings. When he brought them down, it kicked up dust like a helicopter and he flew off like a jet plane.

"Man! Sonic didn't arrive in time. I knew he'd be a coward…" Jet began.

Just then, someone picked him up at high speed and began racing after the flying dragon. 

"I heard that, Jet." Sonic said.

He also had Link holding onto his neck and Jet was in his arms.

"Sometimes I wonder if hedgehogs have better ears than birds…" Jet thought to himself.

Sonic dropped Jet off at a nearby tree and raced off with Link still holding on for dear life. Jet wondered what that dragon was here for and then remembered it saying something about a giant emerald.

"Could that thing be after…"

Miles away, Knuckles was lying on his back with the largest emerald in the world behind him. It was none other than the Master Emerald: the one gem that could stop the Chaos Emeralds. Knuckles himself bore the duty of protecting this sacred jewel at all costs and he proved successful several times. The echidna's nap was brought to a sudden stop when he heard a low, vibrating roar.

"WHAT THE?!" Knuckles shouted as he shot upward.

Knuckles then saw Red Wyvern and took him as a threat. The minute the scarlet dragon landed, Knuckles glided through the air in a stance similar to Superman. Then, he saw how big Wyvern was. He didn't really care and he landed just thirty yards away from the massive creature.

"And where do you think YOU'RE going?" Knuckles asked, pointing his fist at Wyvern like an accusing finger.

Wyvern laughed at how brave, or foolish, this creature was trying to be and simply said, "Pathetic creature. Get out of my way!"

Red Wyvern then inhaled deeply before breathing out two jets of fire from his nostrils. Knuckles flipped backward, but not far enough from Wyvern's arms. The dragon swatted Knuckles like a fly and brought the echidna smashing into the ground before continuing to trudge after the Master Emerald.

He hadn't gone three steps when something hit him in the back and he turned to see Link, still holding on to Sonic. Sonic had taken one of Link's light arrows and threw it like a javelin, but this proved to be something of pure desperation. Although the arrow didn't hurt Wyvern much, it did make him pause.

"Ah, the elf boy. How many times does Master Ryu have to kill you?!" Wyvern shouted impatiently.

"What can I say? We die hard." Sonic said, rather confident.

Red Wyvern exhaled fire from his nostrils again, but Sonic was much faster than Knuckles and easily outmaneuvered them.

"Nice attack. Let me show you ours!" Link said as he pulled out the Mirror Shield he pocketed while he was searching for supplies.

The minute Wyvern exhaled fire again, Link put up the shield and the flames reflected, hitting the dragon in the chest. Wyvern roared as he clutched the spot like it was about to fall off. The red Dragonoid inspected his wound, which was no more than a simple burn, and scowled. Wyvern then took off and started flying around like a bird evading a predator as he breathed fire. Link could reflect the shots, but Wyvern's strategy was working: he was flying like a butterfly to make sure none of the attacks hit. He then came crashing down on the ground and tried to swat Link with the back of his hand. Link whipped out his sword and brought it into a vertical slash. Wyvern grunted in surprise as he saw something like a paper cut on the back of his hand. He raised a foot to smash Link and end it all.

"Not if I can help it!" Sonic said as he curled into his saw attack.

The blue hedgehog hit Wyvern in the foot and Wyvern roared as he hopped up and down like he stubbed his toe. Sonic grinned as he curled up and tried again. This time, Wyvern turned and caught Sonic with his tail. Sonic flew to the ground and actually drilled into it. As for Link, Wyvern took care of him by exhaling very thin flames that wrapped themselves around Link's arms and solidified, forming a kind of kind of bright ruby rope.

"You two are a real thorn in my side. I'll just take what I need and go." Wyvern said as he waltzed over to the Master Emerald.

"I won't…let you have…The Master Emerald…"

Red Wyvern turned and saw Knuckles getting up from the ground, apparently injured. The dragon rolled his eyes and flapped his wings repeatedly at Knuckles. The flapping created a gust of wind to rival a hurricane and Knuckles flew backward to meet the trapped Link.

"You're more trouble than you're worth." Wyvern said as he gripped the emerald in his hand like you would an orange.

A pillar of fire engulfed Wyvern and the red dragon vanished completely.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: Another way**

Knuckles' eyes fluttered open as he came to. He saw an elf dude, Sonic, and Vector with a few bruises, too.

"Mornin', Sleeping Beauty!" Vector said, heartily.

Knuckles shot into a sitting position, but fell back down and clutched his arm, which was in a cast. Espio came into the picture and leaned Knuckles back into a comfy position. The chameleon was also battered and bruised and so was Charmy, who was right behind him.

"Take it easy, old friend. That dragon broke a few bones in your body, so I think it's best to say you shouldn't move for a while." Espio said as he took his hand off Knuckles' chest.

Knuckles simply pounded the mattress with his uninjured hand. It was obvious that the battle didn't just hurt the red echidna physically, but mentally as well.

"That dragon took the Master Emerald! I can't let him get away with this!" Knuckles said, very frustrated.

"Knuckles, we know he did that. We tried stopping him too. As you can see, you're in worse shape than we are." Vector said, showing Knuckles a few bruises, lacerations, and gashes on his back.

Sonic nodded and said, "He's right, Knucks. You need rest. If anyone's gonna find the Master Emerald, it's going to be me and Link."

Link could only nod to that comment.

Sonic then took out all seven Chaos Emeralds and they began to circle both him and Link. They were going to find this Ryu guy and stop him once and for all. However, the Dragonoids had other plans for the travelling pair.

Universes away, Ryu held the newly found Master Emerald in his hand as though it were a kind of unique animal. He then looked into a kind of crystal ball and saw the Chaos Emeralds circling the blue hedgehog.

"Not if I can help it. This emerald is not just a key item, it is going to be a nice tool." Ryu said in a very confident tone.

Ryu then belched dark blue flames onto the Master Emerald and the great gem seemed to glow. Finally, the great gem produced a bright red light and Ryu smiled as he awaited results.

Back at Sonic's world, the Chaos Emeralds were just about to give off their energy when they suddenly lost their glow and fell to the ground.

"Oh no! They're using the Master Emerald to block Chaos Control! We may be trapped here!" Sonic said as he picked up the now useless emeralds.

"WHAT?! That's impossible! I'm the only one who can tap into the Master Emerald's power!" Knuckles said in surprise.

"You mean…I'm stuck here with THOSE GUYS?!" Link asked, pointing at Vector, Espio, and Charmy.

"Hey! Are you saying you're not happy to see us after all these years?" Vector asked, pointing at Link.

"Vector, I think he just might." Espio said as he glanced at his roommate.

"You just might be stuck here unless you find another way." Jet said as he entered, also wearing an arm cast.

"Oh, great! It's birdbrain again!" Knuckles said in a mixture of anger and sarcasm as he sat up.

"Oh, stoppit, you red mutt. You could ask Tails or Wave to do a bit of science for you." Jet suggested as he passed Knucks' bed.

"I thought of that long before you did, Jet." Sonic said as he looked the bird in the eye.

Sonic then turned to Link and held onto his arm.

"Hold on." Sonic warned before he took off at top speed.

When Sonic disappeared, Knuckles sat up a little slower than last time as he pointed his free fist at Jet. 

"Did you call me 'RED MUTT'?" He asked as he put it closer and closer to Jet.

"Oh, uh…Sorry?" Jet apologized, sweating.

"Guys, I think we should get outta here before this gets messy." Vector said as he inched away.

"Yeah. Let's get outta here before I get clobbered." Charmy said.

"That's pretty much what he said, Charmy." Espio commented.

"Oh." Charmy said with a "boy do I feel stupid" look.

Then, Knuckles started beating up Jet with his uninjured hand and the Chaotix walked away without even looking back.

Sonic was running so fast, Link felt like they would time warp. It was like that time when Sonic came to Hyrule to help out with Concolor. He was going to speak up, but Sonic broke the sound barrier and Link's speech was messed up a bit.

"I dunno what you just said, but I think you mean it." Sonic said as he continued to rush on.

The minute they arrived at Tails' place, Tails already had some things for them.

"Hey, guys! I knew that the Chaos Emeralds wouldn't work once those dragon guys got the Master Emerald, so I whipped up these." Tails said as he held them out.

These items were a kind of tracking device and a new pair of shoes. The shoes were more like a combination of boots and track shoes and looked built for high-speed as well as good traction.

"These shoes are for you, Link. If you wear them, you'll be able to go as fast as Sonic." Tails explained as he handed them to the hylian hero.

"Well, that's a relief. Now I won't have to grip Sonic's midsection all the time." Link said as he slipped them on.

The new shoes bore little to no difference to Link's boots and Link decided to take them for a spin. Link took off at his usual top speed, but instead of his usual speed, he was speeding so fast that a rock in front of him was gone in less than a second. He raced back in an equally fast amount of time. Tails then put his finger up and continued explaining other things.

"That's not all, I've equipped Sonic's shoes and your new boots with special sensors. Once you reach supersonic speed, you can travel the dimensions. Luckily, I made it special. If you don't want to warp, they won't do it. If you do, they will. Oh, and this…" Tails said as he held up the tracking device.

"I did a little scan on the Master Emerald as it was stolen. This device will allow you to find any key items. I don't know what these dragon guys are, but they're obviously not friendly." Tails said as he handed Sonic the tracker.

"Wow, Tails, you come prepared as always. Thanks, buddy." Sonic said as he gave the thumbs' up.

"Alright, if anything pops up, you can come here and tell me. Okay?" Tails asked.

"Alright, let's go, Sonic." Link said as he walked out the door.

"Good luck, Sonic!" Tails shouted as he waved.

Sonic and Link took off at the speed of sound and vanished in green light.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: The world of dinosaurs**

This way of travelling the dimensions wasn't as bad as last time. Last time, he had to stay in his seat in the Arwing II and always seemed to feel close to throwing up. Now, it simply felt like he was running through a strong breeze.

"I think I can live with this." Link thought to himself.

As suddenly as it began, it stopped. They were on the ground of a lush, jungle planet that Link instantly recognized when he saw a familiar creature. It had a stout body, a birdlike beak, four limbs, and a thick tail covered in little horns. 

"Welcome to Sauria, Sonic." Link said.

"You've been here before?" Sonic asked as he looked around.

"Yeah. This is where Fox and I went to find the Ice Sage about a year ago." Link answered as he took in the beautiful landscape.

"Wow. For a moment, I thought we went back to the time when dinosaurs weren't just confined to zoos…Well, we can sightsee later. Right now, we gotta move!" Sonic said as he strode into the dense growth.

Deep in the same jungle, another creature had arrived. It was none other than a Dragonoid and had obviously come here for a reason. This one wasn't red or black, but a kind of bluish silver. His snout was shorter than the other ones and he looked like a giant lizard and he had a straight row of spines that went down his back. He looked around and sniffed the air.

"Yes. This should be the way. First, I think I shall lure them in. Or if my name isn't Blue Firedrake." The dragon said as he strode off.

Then, there was a rustling in the trees and Firedrake looked at the spot. He grinned a fangy grin as he strode toward it.

"He'll make a perfect guard dog. Now, all I need is the bait." Blue Firedrake said as his big, orange eyes narrowed. 

Link and Sonic walked through the forest until Sonic's tracker started going off. Sonic took the sensor out and inspected it.

"Hey, Link, I think we found the next Key Item. We gotta get going!" Sonic said.

"Wait. What's a Key Item?" Link asked.

"Tails did a scan on the Master Emerald and found that several other items across the dimensions have similar structures. He named these things Key Items and he believes that the Triforce that was stolen from your world was one of them." Sonic explained.

The blue hedgehog was about to run off when something moved. Both of them froze as Link slowly picked up a stick, extended it, and hit something near a large rock.

"OW!" The thing said.

The thing he hit came out from behind the rock and Link saw it wasn't a threat. The creature was a triceratops to you and me, but on Sauria, it was called an Earthwalker. It walked over to Link and spoke in a rather annoyed tone.

"Why'd ya' prod me that hard?" It asked. The thing's voice was adult, but it was somewhat boyish and still pretty young; probably a teenager.

"Sorry. We're a little hyper now." Sonic apologized as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Why, if Fox McCloud finds out you did that to me, I'm going to…" The Earthwalker began, but Link cut him off.

"Wait. You know Fox McCloud?"

Tricky shrugged in a manner, seeing as he was on four legs.

"Of course I know him. I'm his buddy Tricky. By the way, you wouldn't happen to know where he is, wouldja?" The dinosaur asked.

"Yeah. I'm afraid he's not here and he can't come." Link said.

"But I need someone to help the Walled City. There's a bunch of Dreadfin in there and I need help!" Tricky said, very worried.

Link flinched. He had been told about the Dreadfin and their fearsome reputation, but he had never seen one and didn't really want to. However, he had no choice otherwise and the universe WAS in peril.

Sonic thought for a while and then asked, "Can you take us there? I'm sure we can help since Fox isn't here."

Tricky was overjoyed to hear this and said, "Sure! Hop on my back. I know where to go!"

Link clambered onto the young dinosaur's back, but Sonic was pretty reluctant. In fact, he stayed right on the ground.

"Nah. I'll run, but thanks for the offer." He told them.

"Oh, okay. But you better be able to keep up." Tricky said as he looked back.

"Don't worry about him. He'll easily accomplish that task." Link assured as he patted Tricky's shoulder.

"You're gonna have to not do that. I'm not some beast of burden." Tricky said, glaring up at Link, "Alright. Now, let's get GOING!"

Tricky charged through the undergrowth, snapping small trees like twigs. Sonic sprinted behind the dinosaur; the blue hedgehog was a sprinter not a bulldozer.

It took them a few minutes and Sonic happened to notice that they were going toward a very strong signal. He took out his tracking device and they were getting closer by the second.

"Hmm…Why would these 'Dreadfin' be at Walled City like that?" Sonic thought to himself.

Just then, Tricky stopped, causing Sonic to collide with his behind. Sonic fell to the ground and rubbed his head in pain.

"Now what was THAT all about?!" Sonic asked impatiently.

"SSSHHH!!!" Tricky hissed as he crouched down in a fern bush.

"What is it?" Link asked in a whisper.

"Those." Tricky answered as he gestured toward the direction he was going. 

There were six or seven spinosaurs wandering around a kind of ancient palace. Link remembered the redeye that came to Hyrule and his last journey through here. He then realized that these must be Dreadfin; the description was exactly how Fox told him. They were slightly larger than redeye, but they looked a little more lightly built with crocodile-like jaws and razor-sharp claws. They then saw that they had a kind of fin on their backs, hence their names. Just when Link thought things couldn't get worse, something came around the center palace and his eyes widened in surprise.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: The Dreadfin King**

The thing came around the temple was a Dreadfin, but it was twice as big as all of the other dinosaurs in the area. It had armor-like plates on its shoulders and hips and decorative scales, each one red or gold. It's large, orange eyes almost blended into the color and the large fin on its back was only slightly more light in color. Its teeth were knifelike and a kind of dull yellow as well as peg-shaped for holding things in place and emerged from jaws the size of small biplanes. The main thing that stuck out of its body color were its claws; each one was as black as obsidian and longer than two of Link's swords: even longer than its teeth. It was the exact same size of the giant redeye that Link saw a giant General Scales take care of.

"I see you've found the Dreadfin King. He's big alright." Tricky said, obviously seeing the look of shock on Link's face.

Sonic's sharp eyes immediately spotted a figure that was the size of a canary compared to the Dreadfin King. It was none other than a Dragonoid and it was perched on top of the Dreadfin's head like those birds you see on rhinos in nature films.

"Looks like it was the Dragonoids all along…" Link said as he squinted, trying to see the Dragonoid ahead, "They must be searching for the key item. But what is it and where is it?"

Back in the Walled City, Blue Firedrake was looking around. He had found a way to control the Dreadfin King and have his soldiers patrol the area. It was ingenious; these beasts were so easy to control with their bloodthirsty minds.

"I know the Key Item is around here somewhere…But where? WHERE?" Firedrake asked himself. "Alright, I've had enough of searching through these ruins. I think it's time to send these dinosaurs into the jungle. Maybe the Key Item is in there…"

Blue Firedrake then emitted a roar that the Dreadfin King met at exactly the same time. The Dreadfin turned their crocodilian heads and a few still searched the temple while a few others thundered off for the jungle. However, Blue Firedrake couldn't shake the feeling that, in some way, he wasn't alone.

Deep in the jungle, Sonic felt something under his feet. It was a kind of small tremor and he looked at his tracker. According to the tracker, he and his buddies was right above the key item.

"Uh, Tricky?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah?"

"Stand back."

Tricky waddled to his side, nearly knocking Link over, as Sonic leapt into the air and spun in the buzz saw fashion. The spinning hedgehog dug right into the earth and went down many feet. Link peered down the hole and waited for results.

"Where does he think he's going?" Link asked.

His answer came when something burst from the hole and Sonic landed with a kind of Sword in his hand. It had the all-too-familiar head of the Krazoa on it and Tricky's eyes widened as he laid his eyes on it.

"WOW! The Krazoa Sword! I thought that thing only existed in mythology." Tricky said in astonishment.

Link was astonished and asked, "You've heard of this thing?"

Tricky nodded as he continued.

"Yeah. Legend has it that this sword was made by the Krazoa to help ensure peace on Sauria. However, the bad dinosaurs wanted to steal it for their own greedy reasons. So, they hid the sword so that no one would find it. I feel like I just fell into Saurian history!"

"Wow. I'm sure glad it's in our hands." Sonic said, not knowing the danger he just unleashed.

Back at the temple, Blue Firedrake froze and so did the Dreadfin King. Firedrake then sniffed the air like there was an alluring scent in the air. Then, the Dreadfin King emitted a low growl as all the other Dreadfin entered the city and began to patrol it rather than search it.

"It's close. I can actually see where it is…" The Dragonoid said in a quiet voice.

The Dreadfin King then turned and started thundering toward the jungle. Firedrake's orange eyes searched the whole area until he spotted a group of three people, completely oblivious to the threat.

Link, Sonic, and Tricky were too distracted by the sword to notice that something was getting closer. Just then, an impact tremor coursed through the ground and Sonic took notice of it. Then, Sonic looked up and his eyes widened.

"Uh, guys? What has sharp teeth, scaly skin, and great big claws?" Sonic asked.

"Sonic, now's not exactly the time to be telling jokes." Link said as he looked at his pal, who looked utterly terrified.

"I dunno." Tricky said, not daring to look behind him.

Sonic stuttered for a moment and then slowly pointed behind them.

"I dunno either, but it's looking at us!" Sonic said as he looked into the bright orange eyes of the Dreadfin King.

There he was, in all his hideous glory. The Dreadfin King was looking down at them, his teeth bared and large drips of saliva dripping from them. The Dreadfin King was, literally, coming to dinner.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: War**

Link didn't know what to do. He couldn't harm a creature of this size with just a few arrows and a sword and shield. This Dreadfin was going to squash them like cockroaches if they were lucky. The Dreadfin King raised its massive foot and brought it smashing down, planning to crush them all like beetles. Fortunately, Tricky narrowly galloped away and Link and Sonic sped out of the way easily.

"That was TOO CLOSE!" Link said as he regained his balance.

"Don't get too comfy!" Sonic said as he sped away.

The Dreadfin's tail was coming to meet them, but Link evaded it in a single bound. Meanwhile, Blue Firedrake laughed at their pathetic attempt of running away like frightened bunnies.

"If that's the best you can do, why don't you go in the sprint rather than fight?" The dragonoid taunted.

Down below, Tricky had reached cover and was well out of the Dreadfin King's sight.

"What's going on here? We can't fight this guy with what we have…I GOT IT! I'll go get help!" He said to himself.

Tricky took off, sprinting like a horse to avoid the Dreadfin King's teeth and feet. In seconds, he was running through the Walled City, evading Dreadfin along the way. The Dreadfin noticed him and tried to snap at the Earthwalker only to see him race past with amazing agility.

"Man! These guys don't quit!" Tricky said as he continued to worm his way through them.

After what seemed like an eternity, Tricky went to a part of the Walled City where his father had told him all about. It was a kind of cave, but it had a large cage with heavy bars and saw what he was looking for. He knew because a large eye peered through the steel bars at him.

"THERE you guys are. Man, I sure am lucky my dad tamed all of you." Tricky said as he began to open the cage.

Meanwhile, with the Dreadfin King, Blue Firedrake was still howling with laughter as Sonic and Link ran around like cheetahs trying to evade the feet, tail, claws, and teeth of the massive dinosaur. Then, something unexpected happened. When the dinosaur's massive tail came down, Sonic leapt on top of it and ran across the Dreadfin's back. When he was at the base of the neck, he leapt into the air after shouting one word.

"SURPRISE!"

Blue Firedrake whirled around only to have Sonic collide with his face. The dragonoid keeled backward, almost falling off his mount, but he regained his balance and he spat out teeth that had fallen out onto the ground. He turned to Sonic and took a swipe at him with his long claws. However, he appeared to only swipe air and he missed.

"Ha! You'll have to do better than that if you wanna hit Sonic!" Sonic said as he evaded a sweep kick.

Then, Firedrake did a pretty stupid thing. He inhaled and vomited blue fire at Sonic, but the blue hedgehog proved too fast as he sped away, and the flames only burned the Dreadfin King. The Spinosaur reared its large head back and roared in pain. Firedrake lashed out with his tail, but Sonic proved too fast and jumped on it before bouncing onto Firedrake's mug. Firedrake clutched his face in pain and reached out blindly. He felt his hand close around Sonic's head and he opened his teary eyes before squeezing. Just then, something hit him in the back and he stumbled forward. When he turned around, Link was there to meet him with a diagonal slash. Firedrake released Sonic and clutched his wound. The huge gash went from his left shoulder to his right hip. He snarled like a mad panther and threw a punch at Link only to miss by a mile. Link rolled away before the punch broke him in half and slashed Firedrake in the calf. Blue Firedrake cried out, but then he broke off with a smile.

"You're better than I expected, boy. I'm surprised you didn't fight Lord Ryu." Firedrake said with a very toothy grin.

Just then, an earthshaking roar erupted from the Walled City and they whirled around from fighting to see Redeye swarm the area and start battling the Dreadfin. Another roar was heard and Blue Firedrake turned to see his whole plan almost go down the drain.

Out of the forest came a giant Redeye, easily as big as the Dreadfin King, and snarled like an enraged wolf. The battling trio happened to notice they were on the Dreadfin's nose. The redeye opened its mouth and charged just when Sonic and Link slid down the Dreadfin's back and Firedrake took off like an eagle. Unfortunately, the Dragonoid lost control of the Dreadfin King just when the Redeye bit down on its nose. The Dreadfin King shook the mind control out of his head, came to, and gave his attacker a good swipe across the face. The Giant Redeye released his opponent and they started roaring their challenges to each other. As soon as they realized that threats weren't enough, they charged with their mouths open.

Firedrake searched the ground while in midair and saw Link make a run for the Krazoa Sword.

"Not if I can help it!" The giant reptile said as he narrowed his yellow eyes.

He dove at Link like a falcon and proceeded to swat the hylian hero as he passed. The high speed only increased the power of the blow and Link tumbled across the ground and stopped some fifty feet away from the sacred blade. Firedrake made a wide turn and reached for the blade, but Sonic leapt into the air and spun into his forehead again. Firedrake stopped in midair as Sonic came for him again. This time, Firedrake swung with his tail and hit Sonic like a professional baseball player hitting a homer. Sonic flew through the air and Firedrake then saw his mistake and the fate of the Dreadfin King.

The Dreadfin King and the Giant Redeye were still tackling each other when Sonic spun right through the Dreadfin's eye. The Dreadfin King roared in pain as he shook his massive head to try and shake the pain out. The Redeye seized its chance and brought its head smashing into the Dreadfin King's side. The spinosaur fell on its side and tried to get up when something like eighty large knifes plunged into his ribs. The Dreadfin King cringed in pain as the Giant Redeye seized it by the neck and proceeded to crunch the spine like a twig. The Dreadfin King, after probably centuries of life, was dead.

Blue Firedrake saw the fate that beheld his pawn, but now he had to make this mission fast. He flew down and gripped the hilt of the Krazoa Sword between his index finger and his thumb before taking off. He looked down at Link and grinned.

"I'll see you later, boy." The blue lizard said as he vanished into a red portal.

Back on the ground, Link came two and pounded the ground with his fist as he saw Firedrake fly away with a grunt in frustration. Sonic clambered out of the Dreadfin's eye socket and shook the blood and slime off him.

"EUGH! As much as I hate to say it, I REALLY NEED A BATH AFTER THIS!" The blue dude said as he shook himself of anything that would come off.

Link then looked at the Redeye and drew his sword. He was about to charge when Tricky stopped him.

"Don't do it, Link. You need to find that blue dragon and the Krazoa Sword. We'll handle things here." Tricky assured him.

"I hope you can. Thanks." Link said as he sheathed his sword.

Sonic powered up his special shoes and Link did his. Tricky even said, "Good luck" before they sped off through the portal.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: Crouching gorilla, hidden Dragonoid**

Universes away, Blue Firedrake returned to his homeworld in the center of the universe, the Krazoa Sword in tow. He walked to the center of a large room with ten different pedestals, two of which had different items on them. The first one held three golden triangles that Ryu had stolen from the land of Hyrule itself while the other held the Master Emerald. Firedrake's colleague, Red Wyvern, had snatched this from a persistent red echidna and shared the Dragonoids' first clash with the blue hedgehog and the hylian hero.

"My Lord, I return with the sacred Krazoa Sword." Firedrake said, holding out the sword in his outstretched hand.

A huge globe of fire appeared in the air and Ryu instantly materialized from it. The dark dragon touched down on the ground and took the Krazoa Sword in his mighty claw.

"Good work, general." Ryu said as he took the sword over to a pedestal near the Master Emerald and sat the item there.

"What orders do you command, Lord Ryu?" Blue Firedrake asked, cautiously.

Ryu spun on his heel and began to pace across the room. Strangely, he seemed to keep the same satisfied expression as he did so. Then, it hit him.

"Open the portal to the bronze world and take a break, Firedrake. I will send in Salamander." Ryu said as he went over to his throne.

"WHAT? You're sending in that deranged psychopath? I would be far better than that lunatic." Firedrake opposed, shaking his fist in midair.

Before Firedrake could even muster another point-out, Ryu had gotten up, crossed the amazing distance between the two of them, and backhanded his general. Firedrake careened to the floor and clutched his jaw as Ryu's sharp teeth clenched together so hard, you could hear them grind.

"Those are your orders, Firedrake. Remember your place!" Ryu snarled.

Blue Firedrake slowly got up and skulked off to fetch Salamander, still surprised at how brutal his master was.

In a flash of green light, Sonic and Link reappeared in a dense jungle. Sonic surveyed his surroundings, had no clue where he was, and turned to Link.

"Link? Where the heck are we?" He asked as he scratched his head.

"I think I have a pretty good idea…" Link began, but there was a roar in the distance.

"Talk later!" Link asked as he hurried off through the jungle with Sonic right behind him.

Miles away, King K. Rool; king of the Kremlings was marching an army of Kremlings through the jungle. There were at least half a million of these crocodiles behind him and he looked very ticked off.

"That bumbling chimpanzee won't get me THIS TIME! I'll make sure of it! Now hurry up you buffoons!" The tubby croc barked.

"Sir, I'm not a baboon! I'm a crocodile and you know it!" One Kremling commented.

"Either they're going deaf or they're just plain stupid." King K. Rool muttered under his breath.

"I'd say they're downright brainless." A cold voice whispered into K. Rool's ear.

K. Rool froze and slowly turned around to meet a large, green fist. As soon as he fell to the ground, the green thing laughed, almost maniacally. Then, he turned to the army, who just stood there in complete shock.

"Unlike fatso here, I have a different plan for all of you." The thing said to all the Kremlings.

Bright orange fire engulfed the Kremlings and they shielded themselves. However, it seemed to be for nothing. They opened their once-yellow eyes only that they were turned red.

Back in the jungle, Link was hacking through vines and branches with his sword. They had been in there for about half an hour when all of a sudden, something big came smashing into them. All three of them skidded across the ground and eventually screeched to a halt.

"Oh. S-sorry, Link! Sorry, Sonic!" The thing said in a deep voice that Link instantly recognized.

Link came back to earth and saw the familiar face of Donkey Kong. Sonic came to and his face instantly lit up with happiness as he saw the big ape.

"Hey, DK. Long time no see." Sonic pointed out.

"Uh, yeah. We can talk later, but we have to get moving in about…thirty seconds time!" DK said, trying to get away.

Link simply took out his sword and pointed it at DK so close, it was right in between the ape's nostrils.

"What's with all the rush, DK?" The hylian asked as he painfully got up.

"I was running from these NEW Kremlings! At first, I was creaming them. But then came some big, green, flying guy and those new minions of K. Rool's. I'm glad I ran into you guys! I NEED YOUR HEEEEEEEEEEEELLLPPP!!!" DK said urgently.

"It must be those Dragonoid creatures again!" Sonic said as he narrowed his eyes again in anger.

"Dragonoid?" DK asked as he scratched his head.

"How about you let Green Salamander explain to him?" A deep, roaring voice asked.

Everyone whipped around to see a large, green dragonoid. Unlike the others that came before him, he had no horns. His head looked something like a lizard's and neither its head, neck, or tail had spikes on them. Green Salamander's eyes were as orange as citrines and his claws, like the others, were pitch dark. DK's eyes widened as he recognized this thing and became paralyzed with fear as Link pointed up at the new beast.

"THAT is a Dragonoid." Link pointed out.

"Ohhh…" DK said as he stared, wide-eyed at the large dragon before him.

"Ah, Link and Sonic. My lord has told me all about you and how weak your little land is." Link scowled. "And judging from what I've heard, you'll make for an easy victory. When I'm through with you, my master will give me a reward worthy of a leading general like myself. And you won't like that! AAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Green Salamander cackled.

"Is it me, Link? Or is this guy as crazy as his smile suggests?" Sonic asked.

"It's not just you, Sonic. He IS insane." Link answered.

Salamander laughed like a hyena before he spoke again.

"Insane, am I? Well, I'll just let my army of Dragonoids do all the talking for me if that's okay with you." Green Salamander snarled as he put his index finger forward, his insane smile as wide as ever.

A whole army came out of the trees. They were Dragonoids alright, but they bore surprising resemblance to Kritters, Krushas, and Klumps with wings, horns, and large claws. Suddenly, King K. Rool rushed in from the jungle, looking as though he had just run a mile. When he caught his breath, he spoke, but through short gasps.

"Guys…BIG dragon…controlled my troops and…" K. Rool began, but then he saw the whole army in front of him. "Oh. I see the insane iguana has just found you."

Strangely, Green Salamander didn't take this insult too much. If it were Ganondorf, he would have exploded in a rage. Salamander, instead, answered it with a wide grin and a smug look crossed his face.

All three people were almost helpless as Salamander simply said one word. As Salamander began speaking, he pointed forward and his catlike pupils turned into narrow slits as he barked one word.

"ATTACK!!!"


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: War again**

The Dragonoid Kremlings charged like stampeding wildebeests, all the while baring their sharp teeth, claws, and horns. Some took to the wing, some hiked around on the ground, and others clambered through the trees like malevolent reptilian primates. Link, Sonic, Donkey Kong, and K. Rool would be lucky to get out of this alive.

One burly Kremling Dragonoid took a good swipe at Sonic only to miss by a mile. The blue hedgehog hopped onto the beast's head and kicked off, jumping onto the next one in the process. He repeated the process three more times before landing on solid ground and speeding off in a wheel fashion, bowling several of the lizards over.

A slimmer Kremling inhaled deeply and vomited flames at Link, who rolled out of the way. The green-clad hero spun as he got up, slicing through one of the Kremlings' abdomen and spilling its intestines. Link spun on his feet and caught one behind him just when another charged to meet him from behind. However, the one behind him loomed up behind him, but only met a huge fist. DK had socked the dragon in the face and spun to smash another one in the face. He was about to punch one when multiple sharp objects buried themselves in his arm. A Kremling had snuck up behind him and bit him. Strangely, someone peeled the Kremling off and DK was left with a few puncture wounds. King K. Rool had actually helped his sworn enemy and proceeded to flatten this dragon-like creature under his massive weight. As he got up, he bounced one away on his stomach and socked another one down.

"Nobody, but ME gets to beat up Donkey Kong!" King K. Rool said angrily as he plowed through his ex-troops.

Sonic was hopping on these new Dragonoids faster than a frog on lily pads, racing for Green Salamander faster than most of the troops could even run. Link was also hacking his way through these reptilian soldiers at a phenomenal rate. Within seconds, Sonic was soon within striking range of Green Salamander.

"Take this, lizard boy!" Sonic shouted as he leapt high into the air and used his spin attack.

The minute Sonic was within ten feet of him, Green Salamander sidestepped the attack, his sly grin still on his lizardlike face. He cackled as he put up his black claws, which began to glow blood red and then brought them in a vertical slash. Four vertical waves of fire shot in the same pattern of his slash and Sonic barely got out of the way. However, the minute Sonic jumped away, another fire claw was there to meet him and caught him in midair, catching him in the front and sending the speed demon tumbling to the ground. Salamander snorted in disbelief.

"Pathetic mammal, how do you expect to win when you fight like that? AAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Green Salamander taunted.

Green Salamander barely had time to respond, seeing as Link was already within striking range. Before the green dragon had time to react, a light arrow buried itself in his chest. Green Salamander kneeled, clutching the spot in his massive hand just as Link pulled out his sword at the same time Salamander put up his claws. Both struck, but the results were impact sparks and clanging metal. Salamander's claws were so strong that Link's sword didn't even penetrate them. Link didn't have time to respond as Green Salamander simply batted him away with his other hand and sent the Hylian hero tumbling to his right.

"So, you're the almighty 'Hero of Time'? I would have expected you to be faster! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Salamander said, easily as insane as ever.

"Y'know, that laughing is getting on my nerves, lizard-breath." A voice said.

Green Salamander turned around to have a spinning blue saw-blade collide with his chest. The great green dragon stumbled back one step and barely had time to recover when Link's silver Master Sword came up to meet him and put a rather sizeable gash on his right shoulder. Blood seeped out of the cut as Salamander simply touched the spot and licked the blood right off. He simply smiled.

"Just a scratch. Would've expected you to do far better than this! HEHEHE…" Salamander said, gesturing for them to bring it on.

THIS was going to harder than Link and Sonic thought.

Donkey Kong and K. Rool weren't having the time of their lives either. They had to work together to fend off these reptilian soldiers and K. Rool was probably having the worse part of it.

"I don't get it! They're going after me just because I have a stupid banana?!" K. Rool asked out loud.

"Banana? What Banana?" Donkey Kong asked, scratching his head.

"That Dragon-thing told my troops to search the whole jungle for it, but little do they know that I have it." K. Rool said, triumphantly.

Just then, another Kremling Dragonoid leapt onto the crocodile king's back and reached under his scarlet cape.

"HEY! I'm in NO NEED of a back rub!" K. Rool said as he flailed his arms.

A big, furry hand seized the Dragonoid soldier by the back of the head and peeled him off K. Rool's back. DK saw one approaching his front and reached out with his foot. An ape's feet are like a second pair of hands and DK used this to his advantage. His foot's "hand" grabbed his attacker on the nose and pushed backward before he brought the attacking Kremling smashing into the other. King K. Rool suddenly noticed that many were downhill and curled into a ball before tumbling down the hill. The big crocodile went rolling down the hill and bowled his traitors for troops.

"Strike!" K. Rool shouted in victory.

Green Salamander was still in pitched combat with Link and the two appeared to be evenly matched. Link's sword, after a hard work's of parrying, finally caught Salamander across the chest. Salamander clutched his wound, but was more than smart enough to not look away from THIS opponent for too long. He quickly spread his wings and took to the sky. When he was in the air, the Kremling Dragonoid flew up to meet him and gave him a kind of banana. This banana wasn't yellow, but the color of platinum. Salamander's smile broadened so much, it could have spread from one ear to another.

"Yes. The DK Isle treasure belongs to the Dragonoids! VICTORY IS MINE! AAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" Salamander said, as though he were holding a precious gem. He then looked at the Kremling Dragonoids and said, "As for you, you're no longer of any use to me, so HA!"

Salamander vomited fire onto the Kremlings and they lost their wings, their horns, and their red eyes went back to yellow. The one that gave him the DK Isle treasure looked down, tried to fly, but ended up falling to terra firma, some hundred feet to the ground. Salamander then flew up high and disappeared in a dimensional portal.

When Salamander disappeared, the Kremlings got up, moaning like zombies and one of them asked, "Hey, what'd we miss?"

Sonic pounded the ground with his fist and cursed, "SHOOT! Another Key Item lost. This time, they're not going to get away!"

DK looked at King K. Rool and scowled at him.

"Way to go, K. Rool, they took that banana you were bragging about and you thought they were giving you a back-rub." DK said, his arms folded across his chest.

"Uh, hehe…Oops?" K. Rool said, sweating profusely.

"One more thing. You better get outta here, fatso, before they come back." DK threatened.

King K. Rool, fearing those Dragonoids more than anything now, ran off with what was left of his troops trailing behind him.

DK turned to thank Sonic and Link for their effort, but they vanished. He looked around and they were still nowhere to be seen.

"Great. Now I'll never thank them." DK said before leaping into the trees and swinging off, "I hope they know what they're doing…for all our sakes."


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12: The undersea ruins**

Back in Sonic's world, Vector, Espio, and Charmy were back at their house, doing what they do best. Vector was sleeping at his desk with his legs propped up on the table and his hands acting as pillows. Just then the phone rang.

"ZZzzz…Charmy, get the phone…" Vector said, sleepily.

While Vector was sleeping, Charmy picked up the phone, flew it over Vector and dropped it on his head with a CLANG. Vector recoiled in pain, yelled quite a few cuss words I won't even tell you, and then picked up the phone.

"What? I'm a very grouchy guy today!" Vector asked impatiently.

A little pause and Vector's mouth dropped open.

"Oh. Hey, pal." Vector said apologetically.

Another pause and Vector nodded with the occasional "uh-huh" and "mm-hmm". After that, he nodded in approval.

"Alright. I'll be there, ol' buddy." Vector said before he hung it up.

"Ooh! OOH! Was that Mighty the armadillo? Where has he…" Charmy began excitedly, but Vector cut him off.

"No. That was Tails. He wants us to come over." Vector said, "C'mon, Espio."

Vector then noticed that Espio was asleep in a meditative stance and smacked himself in the face.

"Charmy, you know what to do." Vector said.

A few minutes later, Charmy returned with the pepper mill and began to sprinkle it on Espio's face. Espio's face tinged up a bit and finally, he sneezed. While Vector and Charmy chortled, Espio looked rather ticked off.

"You've got to find a better way to do this, guys." Espio said, grumpily.

In a matter of minutes, Tails had the Chaotix Crew in his lab.

"Well, what did you drag us here for?" Vector said impatiently.

"I'm going to ignore that comment. As for why, I'm kinda worried about Sonic and I think there are more to these 'Dragonoid' things than meets the eye. So I'm asking this of you." Tails said as he went over to a door.

The two-tailed fox opened the door and there were a few cameras and laptop computers.

"Whaddya want us to do with THAT stuff?" Vector asked as he scratched his scaly head.

"Link told me of a dimension where he found some mysterious ruins and that there was a character similar to that Red Wyvern guy. I want to find out what it means and I think you should try to help. I've tracked the area and I've found out that among those ruins hold a Key Item. Can you do it?"

Vector thought for a while, but then said, "Chaotix! Huddle!"

They did so and they whispered so quietly that Tails couldn't overhear them. They finally broke up and Vector had the confident look on his face.

"Of course we'll do it. All in the line of duty, Tails. Chaotix crew AT YOUR SERVICE." Vector answered as he gave the salute of a soldier.

"Yeah! Another adventure awaits us!" Charmy said with the excitement of a younger sibling.

"If we die, you stay away from our funerals." Espio said as he pointed a finger at Tails.

After a few hours, Tails had made a special spaceship for the Chaotix crew that could travel the dimensions. Espio and Charmy were packing up several boxes into their spaceship while Vector and Tails stood nearby with checklists.

"Okay, I think you have all the supplies you may need. If there's anything else you want to bring, go get it now." Tails said as he continued to use his checklist.

"I have a bit of stuff back home I'll want to bring. I'll go get it while you help my buddies pack up." Vector said as he beckoned to walk away.

"You do that, Vector." Tails said as he walked off for the rest of the supplies and Vector went off to fetch a few belongings.

A few hours passed and the supplies included some machinery, food, and other stuff for survival. Vector on the other hand brought things to entertain him and his buddies. He brought a Gameboy Advance, a Video Game system, and even a TV set.

"Alright, guys. Ready to go?" Tails asked as he made the last adjustment.

"Tails, we were born ready." Vector said as he thrust out his chest.

The wacky trio hopped into the spaceship and warped to Tails' coordinates.

When the Chaotix crew arrived at the right planet, they looked around the city. It was full of animal people like them, only a little more human.

"Kinda close to home, isn't it?" Vector asked as he looked around.

"No." Espio answered.

After a while, they started hitchhiking and eventually a wheel vehicle stopped for them. The guy at the wheel was a rough-looking Gila monster guy that flicked his tongue out every once in a while that kind of freaked Vector out.

"Can I give you guys a ride?" It asked in a tough, gravelly voice. 

"Why, yes. Your ride will do well."

Vector then proceeded to wrestle the lizard off his ride. Espio flung Vector into the driver's seat and Charmy quickly hopped in just when Vector took off. Vector then happened to notice the driver's manual and flipped it open.

"Yikes! How does this guy afford an apartment?" Vector asked as he put it back.

The minute they reached the same place with the underwater temple, Vector pulled out a rather large suitcase and took out scuba gear.

"Underwater travel, boys. Slip these on and we'll be on our way." Vector said as he tossed them their proper garbs.

"Nice color. Does it come in anything else besides black?" Espio asked, inspecting his wetsuit.

Vector looked at Espio and folded his arms as he said, "It's either black or pink."

"I'll go with black." Espio said as he slipped it on.

When all three members were all dressed up, they waded into the water and began to swim through the water. Underwater travel seemed easy enough, but then something wrapped around Vector's leg.

"AAAAHHH!! It's a giant squid! There's nothing you can do now…go on without me!" Vector screamed.

"Vector, that's kelp." Espio informed.

Vector looked down and, sure enough, there was the long tangle of seaweed wrapped around his leg. Charmy laughed at Vector's antic and a cynical look crossed his face.

"Maybe I shouldn't have read 20,000 leagues under the sea." Vector said as he pulled the kelp off his leg.

The three then entered the underwater temple and found a tablet with a picture of a dragonoid with flames right under its clawed hands. It couldn't have been anything else and even had ancient writing on it. Now the Chaotix crew knew they had no time to lose.

Espio whipped out an underwater camera and began to snap photos of the tablet. He caught at least six of them and when he photographed the last one, a kind of dark-red portal opened up and the tablet disappeared.

"NO! THAT WAS OUR ONLY LINK TO THESE DRAGONOID GUYS AND WE'RE DOOMED!!!" Vector screamed as he clutched his head.

"Take it easy, Vector. I got plenty of pictures." Espio said as he held up his camera.

"Looks like you wasted your whole speech, Vector." Charmy teased.

"Who are you guys?" A female voice asked.

The Chaotix crew turned around to see a dolphin lady with scuba gear and a quizzical look on her face. She then noticed that the tablet was gone and that these three goofballs were the only ones here.

"What did you DO?!" She asked, pointing a finger at Vector and actually touching his nose. 

"Nothing. That tablet just vanished in a vortex of red light." Vector answered.

"Say, you wouldn't happen to have a photo developer would you?" Espio asked, trying to change course.

However, this dolphin girl had a look of great fear on her face and she even started to sweat, strangely for a dolphin. Then, she shook the look off her face and turned around.

"I think the long-made prophecy has come true. Follow me." The dolphin said as she swam out of the temple.

While they were moving, Vector had to ask something.

"Uh, Miss? I didn't exactly get your name." 

"Teal. Now let's move." She said, not looking over her shoulder.

After a few minutes, the Chaotix and Teal got the photos developed and scanned on a computer. Strangely, the Chaotix didn't need all their computers, because this Teal had several of them as well as several other gadgets.

"Wow. I wouldn't expect someone like you to have something like this." Espio said, somewhat impressed.

"To tell the truth, I'm a government agent. But I can tell you're good guys. Do what you need with my computer. NO, bee boy, there are no games." Teal said, suddenly turning around on the last sentence. 

Charmy had tried searching one of the computers for some kind of video game that he could play. However, when he heard Teal, he stopped messing with them.

"Darn." Charmy said as he hung his head.

Now came the tricky part, translation. They went on for many minutes and everyone was getting impatient.

"Aren't you done YET? At this rate, the entire day will be wasted." Vector asked.

"Yeah. Whole day wasted!" Charmy said, rubbing it in.

"Back off, guys. Ancient translation of languages isn't exactly my specialty." Espio warned as he continued to go into the typing again.

"Let ME do it, then." Charmy suggested, tugging at Espio's shoulder.

Vector stopped the energetic bee by grabbing him by the head.

"Stop bugging him, Charmy." Vector said.

Charmy continued to protest, "Let me try! I wanna try! I WANNA TRY!"

Charmy got free of Vector's hand and looked at the hieroglyphics.

"It says, 'The queen wanted the wings of an eagle…'" Charmy said.

Espio and Vector were stunned.

"She had a VCR, but she wanted a DVD, so she took her peanut-butter sandwich for a walk." Charmy finished.

"Let me try, Charmy." Vector said, shoving Charmy out of the way.

Vector ran his finger back and forth across the screen as he put a finger on his chin. Then, he looked at part of it and read it out loud.

"Hmm…Bird, rock, pork chop, bird, and bigger bird. I GOT IT! This is some kind of ancient shopping list!" Vector shouted.

"That's dumber than Charmy's if that's possible." Espio said in the "oh puh-leeze" voice.

Vector shoved Espio out of the driver's seat and typed on the computer a bit. The ancient text then turned into letters.

"Good job, Vector. You translated it into Spanish." Espio said, sarcastically.

Vector got frustrated and gave the keyboard a good whack. Then, it went into English.

"Ol' family touch." Vector said, proudly.

The Chaotix crew read the translation and then their eyes widened and their mouths dropped. Whatever it read, it could NOT have been anything good.

"OH NO! We gotta find Link and Sonic before it's too late!" Vector said as he raced off his seat. "Sorry we're leaving so soon, Teal. We got work to do!" Vector apologized as he raced out the door.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13: Meet the master**

The minute Link and Sonic stopped, they found themselves in a wide plain of grass, flowers, and trees. Link looked around and finally realized where he was.

"Well, it looks like it's the Poke'mon world, Sonic." Link said as he walked a few steps forward.

Sonic looked around and then noticed someone coming straight for them on what could only be a hover bike. Sonic kept the sun's rays out of his eyes as best he could and tried to identify the figure riding it. However, he was approaching fast and Sonic immediately knew he wasn't going to stop.

"Hit the dirt!" Sonic shouted, tackling Link to the ground.

The hover bike zoomed over their backs and as soon as they saw it zip out of sight, they got up. It was then that they saw what the rider was trying to get away from. It was none other than a Dragonoid, but it was NOT one of Ryu's generals. This one was only about seven feet tall, had a small array of spines down his back, and had two horns over his eyebrows that stuck to the sides like bull horns. Still, it was flying around and snarling like a wolverine and both took it as a threat and took off after it. Sonic leapt into the air and landed on the flying creature's back just when it passed.

"WHAT THE?!" The Dragonoid snarled.

Sonic then took one of the Dragonoid's wings and began to jerk it violently, causing the Dragonoid to swerve left and right until it crashed into the ground. The bloodthirsty creature got up and charged Sonic, but the blue hedgehog was more than fast enough to avoid him.

"You will die, hedgehog, in the name of RYU!" The creature roared as he took off and tried dive-bombing Sonic again.

"Oh, I don't think so." Sonic said, his grin broadening.

The minute the dragon was a few feet away, Sonic quickly moved to the left and the Dragonoid landed with a crunch. It tried to get up, but it obviously broke something and landed in the dirt again. Link arrived with his sword out and looked at Sonic.

"You go find that guy. I'll make sure our friend doesn't try anything." Link said.

Sonic nodded and raced off like a bullet and he could hear the Dragonoid's screech in pain behind him. He guessed that Link ran the poor reptile through to make sure it didn't call for help. The blue hedgehog looked around and saw the hover bike up ahead.

"Alright. I'll catch up to it in no time." Sonic said as he increased speed.

The chase didn't last too long, in fact, it hadn't lasted five seconds. Within that time, Sonic was level with the rider and the guy was wearing some form of shades. Sonic got a little closer and then spoke.

"Excuse me, sir? That Dragon thing's gone. You can stop now." Sonic said, turning to the guy.

The rider stopped and so did Sonic. The rider hopped off his vehicle while Sonic simply stood there, patiently. The rider took out a red and white ball the size of an orange and chucked it at Sonic. The ball hit him on the head and simply bounced to the ground. The blue hedgehog blinked a few times and stared at the ball at his feet before speaking.

"Uh, what were you doing?" He asked.

The guy seemed somewhat bewildered at this.

"Huh? You're not a Poke'mon?" The guy asked.

This person had to be at least eighteen, if not, younger and Sonic shrugged. What kind of question was that?

"Poke'mon? No way! I'm a hedgehog: Sonic the hedgehog." Sonic answered.

The guy removed his sunglasses to reveal yellow, catlike eyes. His hair was a kind of silver and spiked that made his head look like a bird of prey's.

"I've never heard of a Hedgehog. Is that some new Poke'mon?" The guy asked.

Sonic fell face-flat on the ground. Link arrived on the scene and got a good look at this guy, who looked, in his opinion, a little outlandish.

"So, he's the one the Dragonoid was after?" Link asked his fallen friend.

"Dragonoid?" The guy asked again.

Sonic got back up and asked, "I didn't get your name. What do people call you?"

The guy reached out his hand and shook Sonic and Link's.

"I can't remember my last name. Most people call me Raphael, but friends call me Raph." The person requested.

Sonic grinned.

"Nice to meetcha, Raph." Sonic complimented with a sly wink.

Just then, something came out of the sky and landed on the ground with a crash that sent all three people skidding. When the smoke cleared, it turned out that it was another Dragonoid, but this one was dull yellow and HUGE: over twelve feet tall. It had four fingers on its hands, wings on its arms instead of on a separate pair of limbs, and talons like an eagle. It had a thick neck that was packed with muscle and two, goat-like horns that pointed backward. Its snout was like that of a rhinoceros minus the horn and it lacked the arrowhead-shaped bone at the tip of the tail.

"Oh, great! Not this again!" Link said as he drew his sword.

"Do not worry…" The dragonoid said, "You're not worth it. I, the great Yellow Drache, am after something much more important than you. However, I think my soldiers will rip you to pieces for some fun."

The Dragonoid let out a high-pitched roar like a screech and out came very muscular Dragonoids with horns like a rhinoceros and bulk to match Ganondorf.

"Now, why don't you show our good friends just how helpless their kind is compared to us?" Drache said as his smile broadened.

Yellow Drache spread his massive wings and took flight to the great unknown as his troops flexed their muscles and gnashed their teeth. Then, the army couldn't wait anymore and they let out war roars as they charged.

"Bring it, lizards!" Sonic said as he charged, too.

Sonic leapt into the air and turned into a saw blade that bowled through most of the dragonoids. Link took his sword and battled his way through, but it wasn't so easy, seeing as some of them had weapons of their own from jagged swords to heavy axes.

"Take this, you lousy lizards!" Raphael said as he threw a Poke'ball.

A light came out and a huge, serpentine creature came out of it. It was none other than a Gyarados with its unmistakable teeth and roar.

"Gyarados, Hyper Beam attack!" Raphael shouted at the top of his lungs.

Orange energy began to gather in Gyarados' mouth with a high-pitched whine as it slowly closed its jaws. It then snapped them open and out came a great blast strong enough to blow up a house. The Hyper Beam blasted through many Dragonoids, tearing several of them to pieces, but many came down on it and began biting, clawing, and hacking at its thick scales. Gyarados thrashed wildly as the dragonoids started smashing it with clubs. Eventually, it fell with a crash and Raphael whipped out the Poke'ball again.

"Gyarados! Return!" Raph shouted.

A red beam of light hit Gyarados and he disappeared back in the ball. The Dragonoids were clearly outnumbering our heroes, even Sonic was having some problems with them.

"Here I come!" A high-pitched voice shouted.

Electricity flashed through the air as our old friend Pikachu raced through the hoard of Dragonoids. It wouldn't have been enough if someone didn't lend a hand. For, hovering high in the air, was the world-renowned psychic Poke'mon Mewtwo. He was raining psychic energy down on the dark dragons and smiting them in the hundreds. The minute the last one fell with a crash, Mewtwo gently touched ground on tiptoe as he always did.

"Welcome back, Link and Sonic." Mewtwo said, telepathically.

Raph's jaw fell open as he saw what was going on.

"A talking Pikachu?! I gotta catch this!" Raph said as he fumbled for a Poke'ball. However, when he straightened up, Mewtwo was in his face.

"Don't even THINK about it." Mewtwo said, his purple eyes narrowed.

Raphael slowly put the ball away and when he did, Mewtwo turned to his friends.

"Please explain, both of you." Mewtwo said, his arms folded.

"It's a long story, but okay." Sonic said in a very serious tone.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14: The three stones**

"And that's the story." Sonic finished.

Mewtwo's eyes widened and Pikachu's mouth was hanging open. Raphael, however, was pretty confused.

"Why are these things here? Is it something we've done?" The trainer asked.

"No, it's not something you did. It's something they're doing. They're after things called the 'key items'. We don't know what they're up to, but it can't be anything good." Link answered.

"How do you know?" Raph asked.

"It's already happened in both our worlds and they took our special items with them." Sonic said, a fleck of anger in his voice.

"He even took the key items from other worlds and we were fighting to protect them. They're THAT strong." Link explained, seeing the look in Raph's eyes.

"Quick, what is the most important thing anywhere around here?" Sonic asked, very urgently.

Mewtwo dipped his head in thought. Then, it hit him. It was something he saw on an ancient tablet while living in the wilderness and now it came right to his mind as he thought of these dragons coming to steal them.

"I think it's the three sacred jewels. I heard that, when combined, they will give off a massive amount of power. They come in three different colors and are in three different lands. I think we'll be able to find the first one here in the Hoenn Region." Mewtwo answered, strictly.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get going!" Raph said.

Raphael seized Pikachu by the scruff of his neck and put him on his shoulder. He then hopped on his hover bike and revved up the engine. Sonic simply took off with Link in hot pursuit. Mewtwo produced a kind of blue aura that surrounded his body and shot off through the air. Shortly after that, Raphael started up the engine and shot off across the area.

Miles away, Yellow Drache was also on the hunt for these gems. He touched ground and began to sniff the air, as though the Key Items had a scent anyone could follow.

"They're close… so close I can almost taste them." Drache said as he narrowed his orange eyes.

"WOW! I've never seen THAT Poke'mon before!" A female voice said.

That was enough to draw Drache's attention to a hip-looking girl with a Poke'ball out. She chucked it at him, but he simply opened his mouth and launched a fireball at it. The flames burned the Poke'ball to dust and the trainer had to hit the dirt to avoid the full-on assault.

"I have had enough of your childish games! Get away or face a fiery death!" Drache roared as he pointed a clawed finger at her.

The trainer said nothing, but she did just as she was told and ran away as fast as her legs would carry her. It thrilled Drache to see this pathetic child run away like a mouse faced with a cat. He was tempted to chase her down, but he chose not to. He had more important things to do.

"I can't believe that psychopathic fool, Salamander actually found a key item. I'm surprised he can even talk with an insanity level as high as his. He's better suited as a berserker than a general, the bloodthirsty animal." Drache thought to himself as he took to the wing again.

The five heroes roared through Hoenn as fast as they could until they came across a strange cave. They screeched to a halt and Link was the first to speak this time.

"Is this it?" He asked.

Mewtwo touched ground and nodded.

"In here is a yellow gemstone. If it's combined with the other stones, it will become the Stone of Power. That's probably what these creatures are after." Mewtwo said sternly.

"Well, I never really expected to go spelunking…but okay." Sonic said with a shrug.

Without further hesitation, Link went in with his comrades close behind. The minute they took five steps into the cave, it was almost pitch black.

"Man! I can't even see my own hand." Sonic said as he put his hand in front of his eyes.

"Ya' want light? Okay!" Pikachu said.

The little mouse's cheeks then lit up a very bright yellow color. The light was so bright that it was as though Pikachu was a living flashlight.

"Good thing, Flash attack." Raphael said as he continued with Pikachu on his shoulder.

It took them a long time just to navigate this cave, seeing as it was a labyrinth of twists and turns, but the cave was more long than winding. Finally, after what seemed like hours, they found the stone. It was perched on a pedestal of pure gold and had the symbol of a lightning bolt right on its front.

"There it is!" Raph said excitedly as he extended a hand to get it.

The minute his hand touched it, electricity coursed through his body and he flew backward. As he struggled to his feet, still feeling like he had just licked a spark plug, he could have sworn he heard Mewtwo chuckle in his mind.

"Oh, and I should tell you. Only a Poke'mon can touch it." Mewtwo added.

"You must really love seeing people struggle, Mewtwo." Link said, knowing what the answer would be.

"I find it somewhat amusing." Mewtwo said with a sly grin, his eyes remaining as sharp as ever.

Mewtwo lifted his hand and the yellow gem levitated into the air. It floated through the air and right into Pikachu's little hands.

"Wow…the Yellow Gem. Don't worry, Mewtwo, I'll guard this with my life." Pikachu said as he put it in Raph's pack.

"Good, Pikachu. However, I suggest we get out of here soon. I'm expecting company from above." Mewtwo said as he looked backward.

Yellow Drache touched down on the ground after hours of flying and went into the exact same cave as our heroes. However, he didn't need a "living flashlight" to navigate this cave. All he had to use was his sense of smell. That AND he had catlike eyes which allowed him to see in the dark.

"At last, the first part of the power stone is mine." Drache said as he grinned a very toothy grin, showing off every one of his crocodile-like teeth.

This grin happened to be short-lived, because by the time he reached the altar, there was nothing there. When he saw it was nothing more than an empty pedestal, he let out a high-pitched noise that bore a resemblance to a cross between a roar and a shriek.

"NO! Those lowlifes beat me here. That's NOT going to happen again. They've messed with Yellow Drache for the last time!" Drache cursed as he clenched his fist.

He then proceeded to get out of the cave and take off like a pterosaur. As he flew at high altitudes, he saw three clouds of dust race underneath him and a blue streak of light fly close to the ground after them. His scowl malevolently turned into a malicious smile as he realized who it was.

"I've got you now." Drache said as he took off after them.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15: Red rage**

The five heroes were trekking across the world of Hoenn, but now they had to get going for the other two stones. However, their luck seemed to have run out when they came across a seashore. When they reached it, Sonic and Link screeched to a halt just inches away from the shoreline.

"Oh, JUST MY LUCK!" Sonic said as he slapped his forehead.

"I couldn't swim that far to the next area." Link said, wishing that he had brought something water-equipped.

"No need for that, guys. Just get a good hold on my bike." Raphael said.

"If you're doing what I think you're doing, you're suicide." Sonic said as he trundled over to the bike and hopped onto it.

Link got in the spare seat and Mewtwo just hovered in the air while Pikachu hopped onto Raph's shoulder.

"Watch this." Raph said as he pressed a button on his handlebar.

The hoverbike zoomed forward at the water and the back wheel made to guide it turned into a kind of propeller. This hoverbike had now become something like a boat that was more than capable of supporting everyone's weight on it.

"I coulda used that information a little earlier." Sonic said, dumbfounded.

"Maybe he likes surprises." Link suggested.

The hoverbike then continued to ride across the sea on the lookout for more of those special stones. However, they knew that they weren't the only ones after this stone.

Just a few kilometers away, Yellow Drache was cruising the updrafts like an albatross, letting the air currents keep him up without even flapping his wings, when another portal opened up just below him. Out came a white dragon with horns like an ibex, but a kind of rhino horn on its nose. It was swimming under the ocean currents like a crocodile rather than flying because of the fact that he lacked wings. Yellow Drache cruised lower until his talons could have scraped the surface and spoke with this Dragonoid.

"White Amphis, what are you doing on my mission?" Drache asked impatiently.

The white Dragonoid surfaced so that his head was just above the surface and grinned as he spoke to his fellow species.

"I was simply sent by Ryu to act as backup sources. If you fail, I will get him the Power Stone." Amphis said, quite informative.

"I don't need you. GET OUT OF MY WAY!" Drache ordered.

Just then, another head exactly the same as the first one came out and growled at him, causing the yellow dragon to flinch. Amphis only chuckled at this.

"You always were the independent one, Drache. However, should you choose to insult me again, my tail will have a few words with you. I'll be seeing you on the nearby shore." Amphis said as he dove back under the water, closely followed by his tail.

"Hmph! Who needs that two-headed freak anyway?" Drache thought out loud.

"I DO." An eerily familiar voice answered.

Yellow Drache's mind froze as he realized who he was talking to.

"L-Lord Ryu. I-I, I was just telling White Amphis…" He stammered.

"How much you wanted to slaughter him? This is a team effort, Drache. And if we are to be truly free, we all must work together. Now, if you hurry, you can find the red stone and bring us a tiny step closer to success. There's NO TIME for games. Remember that." Ryu growled, telepathically and then they lost contact.

White Amphis was still cruising through the water until something brushed on his back and he quickly dove deeper as he heard noise from above the surface.

"What was that?" A voice asked.

White Amphis could barely hear it, but he guessed that someone had accidentally trodden on his back in a boat, most likely.

"Maybe it was some kind of sea creature we hit." Another voice suggested.

As White Amphis looked up, he saw a vehicle that bore surprising resemblance to a bike and then saw a floating figure just to the bike's left.

"You know, this won't get us to the key item any faster. And if we can at least keep this stone safe, they won't have the complete key item. Still, let's not take chances." Yet another voice told them as the bike continued to skim the surface.

"Ah, and I'll be there to steal the stone." White Amphis thought as he slowly trailed after them.

Drache continued to soar high above the ocean until he came across land. Suddenly, a vaguely familiar scent reached his nostrils. Drache looked down and saw a cave similar to the one where they found the Yellow Stone. But this cave was a little bigger and there was no trace of the troublesome hylian and hedgehog.

"Well, I'm pretty sure that this region will be more of a success." Drache said as he grinned and entered the cave.

The five finally found land a few hours after setting sail on the hoverbike and when they finally got off, Mewtwo looked at them again.

"This is the Johto Region. I remember when I first set foot in this land, but that's a different story. Right now, I have a hunch that the next stone is here. The Red Stone." Mewtwo said as he looked out to the land.

"It's a good thing that the cave is right there. I would've hated having to walk a few thousand miles." Link said, gladly.

The group entered the mouth of the cave and Pikachu literally brightened things up a bit with Flash. However, when they reached the destination, it was no more than an empty pedestal with a flame symbol on its front rather than a lightning bolt.

"SHOOT! The Dragonoids beat us here!" Sonic said as he stamped the ground.

"Well, we need to get the last one. It's on a region far to the east called Kanto. If they beat us here, it's proving that they're getting smarter." Mewtwo said as he scrunched up his eyes.

They exited the cave and Raphael prepped up his bike, but then it began to sputter.

"I don't think my hoverbike can handle a travel like that. You're on your own, guys. Take these Dragonoids out!" Raphael said.

"I'm comin' with ya', guys." Pikachu said as he hopped onto Link's shoulder.

"Alright, let's go!" Sonic said.

In a flash of blue and green light, Sonic and Link zoomed off with Mewtwo trailing them.

A few minutes after the two took off, something was sneaking up on Raph. He turned around and saw nothing there save a grain of sand or a few more trillion. Just then, something burst out of the water of the sea and struck him hard on the head. When he woke up, the stone in his pack was gone.

"No…" Raph said as he saw a strange thing flying through the sky.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16: I got the blues**

The minute Link and Sonic stopped, Pikachu fell to the ground, twitching violently. When Pikachu finally stopped, he ran off and Link could hear a retching noise behind a bush.

"I hope we're not doing that again." Pikachu said, almost vomiting again.

"Don't worry. If we're lucky, you won't have to." Sonic said with an eye closed.

"Let's hope this is the truth, Sonic." Link said, trying to calm Pikachu down.

Fortunately, Sonic and Link knew a temple when they saw one. They all had the same appearance as the yellow one and this one was no different. They walked in and, like the others, it was so dark that Sonic couldn't see his hand in front of his face.

"I think that Rouge might be at home here." Sonic thought out loud.

"Who's Rouge?" Link asked.

"Ah, some annoying bat girl. She likes jewels, taunting her enemies, and dark places. I'll give you more details later. For now we'll have to…" Sonic began, but he ran into a kind of invisible wall and fell on his back.

"Oh. Never mind then." Sonic said as he righted himself.

Pikachu instantly used Flash and the whole place lit up. The blue hedgehog had just run into the pedestal without even knowing it. This pedestal had something like a water droplet on it and this gem was the color of a calm sea at sunrise. Mewtwo put his hand forward and the gem was covered in a blue aura as it levitated off the ground.

"Next time, look where you're going, Sonic." Mewtwo pointed out.

"I couldn't see a thing. How am I supposed to look around if I can't see?" Sonic asked with a shrug and a confused look.

"Well, now that we've got our hands on these, those Dragonoids won't do what they plan to do." Link said, sensing an argument coming up.

Their mission done, they turned around and headed for the exit. There was NOTHING that could stop them now, but there was a surprise waiting for them at the exit.

Just when they adjusted to the sun's bright shine, something tried to blast them with fire, causing all of them to leap backward. As they looked up, they saw, not one, but TWO Dragonoids. They instantly recognized Yellow Drache, but he was carrying a white one in his talons. This one had two heads, one mounted on its neck while the other was right on the tip of its thick tail, and scales as white as snow.

"How about we have a little introduction? I'd like you to meet White Amphis, one of Ryu's top generals." Drache joked in a cold, demonic tone.

"The reason is this: Two heads are better than one!" Amphis said as his second head arched its neck like a cobra about to strike, and like a cobra, it flickered out a forked tongue.

Drache then dropped Amphis and the white one dropped to the ground, the ground shaking when his feet touched terra firma. White Amphis charged, easily going as fast as a school bus, causing Link to draw his sword. However, something over six and a half feet tall stood in front of him, its eyes narrowing defensively.

"I'll handle this!" Mewtwo said, getting in Link's way.

Mewtwo's purple eyes glowed bright blue as he put both of his three-fingered hands forward. When he did this, Pikachu instantly caught the blue gem before it landed on the ground. A blue aura surrounded Amphis and for a moment, the white dragon was immobilized. Then, he slowly pulled his arms together and suddenly threw them apart, shattering the psychic hold.

"WHAT?!" Mewtwo said in utter surprise. Only a powerful force could shatter his psychic hold.

Mewtwo's pause was just one second too long, because White Amphis pulled back his hand and backhanded Mewtwo to the other side of the arena. Mewtwo flew through the air, but he righted himself in midair and floated there for a while. He barely had enough time to respond when Drache came out of the air and tried to torch him with a jet of flame. Mewtwo quickly put up a barrier and the fire splashed off like water on an umbrella. In another movement of his hands, he pushed the fire back and Drache tried to get away, but the fire bombarded the Dragonoid in the back. Drache tumbled through the air and landed with a crash some ninety yards away as Mewtwo put his hands down and grinned.

"Child's play." Mewtwo said, as though it were the simplest thing in the world.

However, this proved to be a mistake on Mewtwo's behalf. White Amphis noticed that the psychic Poke'mon's guard was down and his tail shot up and breathed flame at Mewtwo from below. The flames caught Mewtwo full force and the psychic Poke'mon fell to the ground, badly injured. Amphis smiled with both of his mouths and eventually stopped laughing to speak.

"So, YOU'RE supposed to be the strongest Poke'mon alive?" Amphis teased.

The teasing proved a mistake as Pikachu shot electricity at the twin-headed monster. Amphis' whole body twitched with the sudden jolt, but when it cleared, he looked at Pikachu and saw that he was holding the blue gem.

"Now, hand that over, you little rat or things will get REALLY hot here." White Amphis threatened.

The minute White Amphis advanced on him, Pikachu threw the gem into the air and it landed safe and sound in Link's gauntlet-clad hand. 

"Alright! I do like a good game of Hot Potato." Sonic said as he got to a good throwing point for Link.

"Sonic! CATCH!" Link said as he threw the gem like a football.

Sonic leapt into the air and caught it while doing a perfect spin attack. When he was coming down, he planted both feet into Amphis' tail head, which was coming to meet him. After that, he slid down the tail like it was a grind rail and spun right into White Amphis' cranium. Amphis clutched his head in pain and howled like an injured wolf as Sonic landed right behind him.

"Good job, Sonic. I gotta…LOOK OUT!" Link said, diving to the ground.

Sonic turned around only to have Yellow Drache's tail race through the air and smash into him. Sonic fell on his back and the blue gem rolled across the grass. White Amphis smiled.

"You're mine!" He said as he reached for it.

"Not today!" Link said as he raced at it.

Link sprinted forward, leaving a green light trail and seized it. He was thankful for his new boots, because without them, he would have been too late. Yellow Drache attempted to catch Link with his tail, but the hylian leapt into the air and brought his sword down on it. Drache howled like an injured wolf and clutched his tail, which now had a huge gash on it. Amphis was now furious that he was seeing his teammate being suckered by these pipsqueaks.

"You've tricked us for the last time, you filthy flies!" Amphis said, enraged.

The white dragon then opened his mouth and the second head's as well. Two bursts of fire erupted from both mouths and streaked across the plain. Link rolled just when the flames singed his tunic and Sonic's missed him so narrowly, he could feel the heat pass him. However, when Sonic looked forward, he walked right into Drache and the yellow dragon pinned him with his eagle-like foot, trapping the blue blur. At the same time, when Link rolled to his feet, Amphis' tail wrapped around him like an anaconda. Link tried to squirm out of the coils of Amphis' tail, but it was useless and he couldn't use his sword either. Sonic couldn't do much either, seeing as four talons were clutching him in a way that he couldn't wriggle free. They were trapped.

The two Dragonoids then stormed over to Pikachu and the electric rodent shivered as he started inching away from them. However, he didn't have the speed to outpace them when they flew and he couldn't run too well with something in his hands.

"Now, hand over that little sapphire and be a good little rodent." Drache said, still holding Sonic in his foot.

"Try and take it and I'll shock you into next year." Pikachu threatened, his cheeks sparking.

"Ah, but if you shock us, then you'll shock your friends." Amphis countered as his second head flicked its tongue out like a serpent.

Pikachu thought for a while and a smirk crossed his face as he put it on the ground and backed away slowly.

"Okay then. Your little plot won't work. You've only got one gem." Pikachu said as he put it on the ground.

"PIKACHU!" Link shouted, trying to warn his friend.

"Oh, really? I found your little friend with this," Amphis said as he twirled something with his fingers, "I found it in his backpack."

Pikachu's eyes widened. It was the yellow gem! The minute he raced for the blue gem, Amphis' tail shot forward like a striking cobra and caught the gem in his teeth, knocking the rodent backward in the process. Yellow Drache then produced a bright red gem and the three began to float in midair. The stones began to glow brighter and brighter until it formed something like the Zora's Sapphire with the yellow on top, the blue on the left, and the red on the right. Drache took off like a pterosaur and seized the newly formed Power Stone in his other foot.

"Oh, and I'll make sure this hurts, hedgehog." Drache said as he released Sonic some three hundred feet off the ground.

Drache then picked up White Amphis, who released Link, and the yellow Dragonoid took off like an eagle with an animal in its talons. In a flash of fiery-red light, the two vanished.

Sonic fell through the air like a skydiver…without a parachute. The blue blur wanted to wake up, but this wasn't a dream and he was going to go "KER-SPLAT" and all he could do was scrunch his eyes closed as tight as they could. The minute he was five feet from the ground, he stopped and hovered in midair. Sonic slowly opened his eyes and looked around for some logical explanation. Then he saw Mewtwo on his knees, barely lifting an arm and holding him up with what little strength he had left. When Sonic touched down on the ground, Mewtwo slumped to the ground and Sonic barely caught him.

"Whoa. Mewtwo sure took a beating back there. We've got to take him to Raph." Link said as he put Mewtwo's arm over his shoulder and heaved him up.

Link then took off at the speed of sound and Sonic was right behind him with Pikachu on his shoulder.

"NOT THIS AGAIN!" Pikachu shouted over Sonic's speed.

"Like I said. 'No promises'." Sonic answered him.

In a matter of minutes, Sonic and Link reached Raphael, who was fixing his hover bike. He looked up to see Link with an injured Mewtwo over his shoulder and gasped.

"What happened?!" Raphael asked urgently.

"The Dragonoids found us. They were too much for Mewtwo to handle and they were actually immune to his powers." Link said as he laid Mewtwo on the ground.

Raph inspected the psychic Poke'mon as well as his injuries. After a minute, he stood up and looked at Link.

"He's injured, but he should be okay." Raph told him.

Link paused for a second, but then asked, "Did you know the Dragonoids had the yellow stone?"

Raphael looked down in shame and answered, without even looking at Link, "Yes. A big white one knocked me out and took the stone while I was out."

Raphael barely lifted Mewtwo and sat the clone Poke'mon into the spare seat and getting in the drivers' seat.

"I'll take him to the nearest Poke'mon center. You guys have to keep going. I'm counting on you guys." Raph said as he revved up his bike.

"See ya' later, Raph." Sonic said.

"If we're lucky, this world will still be here when we do return someday." Link added.

"See ya' later, dudes!" Pikachu called as Sonic and Link zoomed off.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17: What the?**

Shortly after Sonic and Link left, a spaceship found its way to the Poke'mon world and went in for a smooth landing. A hatch opened up and out came Vector, Espio, and Charmy.

Vector looked around and said, "Now if I'm right, Sonic's signal should be in this world."

"Let's just hope you don't screw this up, Vector." Espio said, seeing him blunder before.

"Do you always have to be so negative, Espio?" Charmy asked in a teasing voice.

"Usually." Espio answered.

"Well, come on boys," Vector said, "Sonic and Link aren't gonna find themselves."

With that, the three members of the Chaotix crew were off.

After a few hours of walking, the Chaotix crew was in a forest. Just then, a kind of insect-thing flew past him and it was almost as big as Charmy. Vector ducked when the monster dragonfly zoomed past him.

"What was THAT?!" The klutzy crocodile asked.

"He's my kind of fella." Charmy said, amazed at what he saw.

"MAN! I hate these unintelligent insects!" Vector said as he swatted a fly away.

POP! Something landed on Vector's face that looked like a bee, but its two forelimbs had something like spikes on the end. However, even though it had no mouth, something said that this thing wasn't exactly…friendly.

"Huh?" Vector said in surprise.

There was a piercing noise and a loud scream as the creature, otherwise known as Beedrill, flew off.

Espio and Charmy started taking care of their buddy's bee stings thanks to a sting ointment that they kept in case Charmy stung one of them. Vector moaned in pain every time their washcloths touched his bumps, which were easily the size of golf balls.

"Maybe the pain will go away faster if you STOP YOUR COMPLAINING!" Espio said, very annoyed.

"Yeah, you've been stung by me PLENTY of times!" Charmy said.

"Yeah, well you never stung me twice in the same area." Vector said as he rubbed his head.

After the Beedrill accident, Vector and pals came to a strange house. It had the word "Poke'mon Center" right on the door. Seeing no other forms of hospitality, Vector decided to go in followed by Espio and Charmy.

The minute they walked through the door, they saw a familiar guy mounted on a person's shoulder.

"Pikachu?" Vector asked.

The electric mouse turned around and saw the familiar face of Vector and his buddies.

"Hey, Vector! Hey, guys!" Pikachu shouted as he waved.

The guy who had Pikachu on his shoulder turned around and inspected these guys. He then turned to his buddy and scratched his head.

"You know these guys?" He asked.

"Of course, Raph. I've seen these guys before." Pikachu said as he leapt off Raph's shoulder.

Just then, Mewtwo came out of the medical room very badly damaged and was struggling just to stand up. Vector's jaw dropped as he saw what happened to this guy.

"Mewtwo? What happened to you? I saw you battle Shadow and come out without even a bruise. What could've done this?" Vector asked in shock.

"It was a creature called a Dragonoid. They're immune to my powers…" Mewtwo said.

The psychic Poke'mon fell down and Vector was there to catch him. He helped Mewtwo up and awkwardly sat the large creature down on a chair.

Espio then went up to Raph and asked, "Have you seen a blue hedgehog and a guy clad in green?"

"Yeah. They just disappeared a few hours ago." Raph answered.

"WHAAAAAT?!" Vector asked in disbelief, "GREAT! NOW WE HAVE TO FIND THEM…AGAIN!!! Back to the ship, boys!"

Vector beckoned for his buddies to follow him and they did so without question. When they opened the door, they accidentally knocked another guy out. The strange thing was that this guy also had a Pikachu and a hat with a Poke'ball on its front.

"I'm sorry! I'll pay for your hospital bills later, thank you!" Charmy said quickly.

Vector, Espio, and Charmy all piled into their ship and took off for Link and Sonic again.

"We gotta find them before it's too late!" Vector thought to himself as they zoomed off through the dimensions.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18: Lost in Space**

Sonic and Link zoomed through the universes and came to a halt at a strange planet with plants none of them had ever seen before. It looked like it was…staring at them and something about it made Link want to throw up.

"Ugh, I don't know where we are, but it's obviously not a clean place to be." Link said as he looked around.

Link's foot then sank about knee-deep into a strange, smelly liquid and he yelped in surprise as he yanked his foot out and began to rub it on a rock. However, when this "rock" moved away on spidery legs, Link flinched.

"Yikes!" Sonic said, slightly startled.

Little did Sonic know that his little yelp alerted someone to their presence. It wasn't a Dragonoid, but it wasn't a good guy either.

Suddenly, something rolled out of nowhere and tried to impale it on spikes that jutted out of it. Link quickly hit the dirt and Sonic proved more than fast enough to avoid it. As they watched in horror, they saw the rock uncurl into a rocklike being with spikes on its shoulders that bore surprising resemblance to lava. It turned to look at them and even its eyes bore resemblance to molten rock. Before either of them had time to register what it was, the thing turned back into the rock and hurtled itself at them again.

"Hmm…Nice attack. Let me show you mine." Sonic said, accepting the challenge.

Sonic turned into his spinball move and charged the rock man, causing the two to collide with bone-shattering force. For a few seconds, sparks littered the ground and flew through the air like fireworks as well as some dirt flying behind both of them. Eventually, the rock flew backward from Sonic's attack and crashed through the undergrowth. Sonic uncurled and brushed back one of his spikes.

"Huh, too easy." He said as though he just won a simple game of chess.

"Now, to find out where we are…" Link said as he took his sword and hacked his way through the undergrowth with Sonic close behind.

Miles away, iron talons were piercing the strange floor of the planet. It kept skulking through the undergrowth and even snapped the largest of branches with his metal fingers. Someone was late for this guy, seeing as he was pacing across the jungle floor. The strange rock thing that attacked Link and Sonic rolled out of the growth and uncurled to reveal the rock man. It went up to the metal thing and spoke in an alien voice we will translate now.

"Sir, I have seen two new trespassers on this planet. I do not know what they are, but I fear they are allies with Samus." The rocky man reported.

"What? What do they look like?" The metal being asked.

"One looks like a human, but he has green garments and a sword while the other is short and blue. The blue one's ball mode was very powerful, it knocked me off course and I had to retreat." The rock thing answered.

The iron thing growled and brought his metal fist into the rock one's face. The metal was so hard it almost cracked the stone armor and it showed; the rock man's armor now had deep, red cracks.

"Spire, I advise that you not go on this alone. Take the others with you. In fact…why wait?" The thing said as he activated a communicator.

"Send them all in." The creature ordered.

"Ridley, why do you even THINK about sending these in?" Spire asked.

"Because," Ridley said, very impatiently, "If your enemies are as powerful as you say they are, you need all the help you can get. Now move out!" Ridley barked.

As the metal figure walked into the light, it was none other than the Space Pirate and Samus' arch-nemesis: Ridley. However, Ridley had changed a lot since he last saw Samus. Now his metal arms were bulky with iron muscle and his head was a good bit longer. His tail didn't have a simple spearhead on the tip, it had a large blade like a sword and his claws were like jagged knives. His wings were longer and wider and his chest plate was locked tight so that he wouldn't make the same mistake as some time ago.

"Samus will not escape my grip this time." Ridley growled as he picked up a rock and smashed it into pebbles.

Around the planet's orbit, a large portal opened and five figures flew out like bats out of a cave. They were none other than Dragonoids. Wyvern, Drache, Salamander, Amphis, and Firedrake: Ryu's five generals to be specific.

"This planet looks helpless enough. Let's see what we can find." Red Wyvern said with a crocodilian grin.

Four spread their wings and took off while one ran off at top speed like an Olympic sprinter. They were sure going to find this Key Item sooner or later and whoever did the best would get more attention from their master.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19: Hunted**

Sonic and Link continued to plow through the undergrowth with Link hacking the plants like those explorers you see on TV.

"I feel like I'm in a greenhouse." Link said, wiping the sweat off his forehead.

"That's easy for you to say. Why don't you try being blue and furry like me? It's at least twice as bad as what you're feeling like." Sonic said, somewhat annoyed.

Just then, something rustled in the bushes and Sonic froze. He slowly looked to his right and saw something protruding from the plant life. It was long, blood red, and charging energy. The hedgehog had seen something similar to it and that thing was a laser cannon.

"GET DOWN!" Sonic said, tackling Link to the floor.

A long red bolt of energy shot from this new thing and grazed Sonic's left ear. Link shot back to his feet, took out his bow, and shot an arrow at the thing. The arrow buried itself in the alien being's abdomen and it let out a loud screech. The thing that was attached to it was an alien that had red everywhere. It had a soul red eye on its needle-like head and its limbs seemed to be spikes and nothing more.

"Well, pinhead, I hope you came here to surrender, because you'll be begging for it!" Link said as he drew his sword.

Link had just swung his sword in a vertical slash when an android thing leapt out and raised a kind of energy dagger attached to its right arm, blocking his sword. It was covered in jade-green armor and its hands were a kind of black metal. It had a visor that was orangish-yellow, but the thing behind it was more…human.

"Don't you dare think about trying to annihilate Trace!" The android said as he pushed Link aside.

"Hey, metalhead! Pick on someone your own speed." Sonic said as he curled into his ball and charged again.

Then, out of nowhere, Spire the rock man arrived and hit Sonic's spin attack at an angle that caused Sonic to tip over onto his side. Sonic tumbled, but quickly rolled to his feet when something resembling a large caterpillar charged out of the forest. It missed Sonic, but it stopped, turned to face Sonic, and changed to take the form of a man. Even though this thing was human, it was somewhat insectoid in appearance and acid-green.

Link had recovered from his experience with the android and charged past the robotic warrior to try and impale either Spire or the caterpillar man when something shot at him and he ducked, missing the blast by inches. Two figures had just emerged from the forest with both blasters out. One was deep blue with a kind of green line going from its scalp and spreading throughout its body. This one had fired a kind of green laser that fried a nearby plant that Link was just about to step on. The other one was an electric blue creature that seemed to glow like a neon lamp. It also had fired a blue blast that hit the ground just behind Link. When Link turned around, he saw that the blue laser had frozen the ground and hated to think about what would have happened if he had been one second too slow.

"Oh, great. Rocky's got friends." Sonic said as he looked at both of his opponents.

"I see you've found my new henchmen." A mechanical voice said, inquisitively.

"Oh no…" Link said as he looked up. 

A familiar metal dragon landed with its large wings flapping like a pterodactyl and its metal teeth clinking together. When it landed, it was much taller than Link remembered; a good seven and a half feet tall.

"Allow me to introduce these new bounty hunters." Ridley said as he pointed at each one, saying its name.

"I give you Spire," He pointed to the rock man, "Trace," he pointed to the red alien, "Weavel," He pointed at the android that was now pointing its energy dagger at Link's back, " and Kanden," He pointed at the caterpillar guy, who was now emitting a kind of growl. "But we can't forget Sylux," He pointed at the guy with the green stripe, "And Noxus." He gestured to the electric blue thing.

"Now, let's get down to the point." Weavel said, inching his blade closer to Link, "Where is Samus?"

"Right here." A familiar female voice said.

Those two words were enough to draw the attention of even the mindless Kanden. Suddenly, all of them focused their guns on some part of the jungle. But they forgot that they turned their backs on their hostages.

"Take THIS!" Link shouted.

Without warning, Link shoved his sword into Weavel's back. Electricity sparked from his body and the android screeched in pain as he whirled around and backhanded Link. Link flew backward and took the sword with him.

"You've got a lot of guts. Let's see what they look like." Weavel said as he raised his energy dagger.

"Weavel!" Sylux shouted. 

Without warning, Sonic had evaded both Kanden and Spire and bombarded the android in the back. Weavel fell forward and Ridley growled in rage. He took a large step forward and his iron talons actually left deep gashes on Weavel's metal armor.

"CRUSH THEM!" Ridley shouted as he shook his fists, like he was holding both of their necks in them.

Just then, a blast of energy hit Kanden in the face. Kanden hissed madly and pointed a kind of arm cannon at nowhere in particular. He shot a kind of acid-green bolt of electricity into the jungle, but he didn't really hit anything except some foliage and a rock or two and he got his answer when another blast of energy hit him in the chest. Suddenly, Kanden reached forward, wrapped his hands around something, and threw it forward to reveal Samus. Samus barely got to her feet just in time to kick Kanden in the chin, if he had one. Kanden staggered backward and took a swipe at Samus with his hand. Samus simply ducked to the right and shot Kanden right in the face. When Kanden finished shaking the cobwebs from his head, Samus was gone.

Weavel got up and charged Link with his energy dagger out as Link dodged a blast from Noxus. However, Weavel let out an angered roar, alerting Link to his presence, and then began to hack madly at the Hylian, who parried with his Master Sword. Link was thankful for the Master Sword, whose holy blade couldn't be shattered by mere force or energy, and pressed his attack. He then pushed Weavel backward and ducked so that Sylux, who was right behind him, blasted his comrade, leaving a sizeable crater in the android's armor. Weavel stumbled backward, leaving an open spot for Link, and ended up with his legs being severed just below the knee. Link ran after Noxus, not knowing that the severed legs didn't slow Weavel down. Weavel continued to race after Link, using his arms like legs. He then spun around on his arm and used the stumps of his legs to kick Link in the back and send the Hylian skidding.

Ridley was furious that his new henchmen were being made jokes out of. Now he wasn't so worried about winning the fight, but of surviving it. His plan had started out somewhat clunky, but now it was beginning to take place.

Back in the battlefield, Trace raced at Sonic with his sniper rifle out and shot another beam at the hedgehog. Sonic simply avoided it and kicked the "pinhead" in the eye. Trace stumbled, but landed on his arms and flipped back on his stilt-like feet. Sonic was about to charge when Trace leapt away and Spire turned into the rock with spikes on it. He rolled at Sonic like a bowling ball and Sonic simply smirked.

"So, you want a rematch, huh?" Sonic asked. 

Sonic was about to turn into the spinball when Noxus charged his cannon and out came a blast of blue energy. It bombarded the place Sonic was going and it froze the ground, causing Sonic to slip and to lose balance. The blue alien was about to do it again when Samus shifted gears in her gun and fired a missile. It hit Noxus in the back and the blue alien stumbled five steps before changing his attention to Samus. Noxus fired a blast at Samus only to see it miss by a mile and watched in horror as his blast caught Kanden in the back. Kanden screeched madly as he turned around, pointed his cannon at Samus and fired, but Samus fired some kind of grappling beam from her cannon and swung away, causing Kanden's blast to hit Noxus in the chest with green plasma. Noxus shook this off and the two continued to chase off after the bounty hunter, who was now back on the ground.

Ridley watched with great amazement as the three were faring well against their opponents and slowly began to stalk toward them. He saw Weavel sort of "weld" his legs back together with his energy dagger and then continue to fight Link. The two began a series of complex sword maneuvers, but the exchange barely lasted ten or twelve seconds when Link severed an arm and a leg. Weavel still hopped after Link on his remaining foot and continued to wield his dagger all the while screeching some threat that involved his dagger and Link's innards. That is until Link severed his arm, but Weavel still continued after him on one foot and managed one last kick until Link severed his last leg and ran his sword right through the android's chest, causing him to go limp.

Spire had turned into his spike-ball and was rolling right for Link, so the hero started running backward away from the rock man. He then changed direction, causing Spire to crash into a rock then Link took his sword and sunk it into one of the spikes on the ball. The rock stopped rolling and Spire emerged, sprawled out on his back. Just then, Sylux pointed a gun and fired just when Link raised his shield. It didn't hit Link, but it did force him backward a step or two until Sonic sprinted in and spun into the blue bounty hunter.

"You're not roasting my buddy anytime soon." Sonic said as he leapt away to avoid a red laser blast from Trace.

Kanden turned into his caterpillar mode and began to crawl after them with his jaws clacking like boltcutters. Sonic quickly leapt away and landed right on top of the big worm. He then placed his hands over Kanden's single eye and the caterpillar started to crawl out of control until it crashed into a nearby tree. When it did, Sonic leapt off just in time for Samus to fire a charge shot she had been saving for such an occasion. When she fired, a huge orb of energy the size of a wrecking ball erupted from the barrel of her cannon and blasted Kanden. When it sunk in deep, Kanden exploded into green slime.

As the trio battled the bounty hunters, the bounty hunters started to gather them in a circle when Ridley opened his mouth to reveal a machine gun. He started firing rapid-fire blasts and all three of them were able to deflect them in some way. Samus turned into the Morph Ball and rolled away in retreat, Link deflected them with his shield, and Sonic simply evaded them with his speed. Then, Ridley got in close and wrapped his claw-like fingers around Link's neck. He reached with his free arm and wrapped his claws around Samus' head, and his taloned foot reached and seized Sonic, who was racing past. Then, his tail reached forward and put it close to Samus' throat while his claws around Sonic and Link simply tightened.

"Hahahahahahahahahaha…You were doomed from the start. Today will be known as the day when I finally killed Samus." Ridley snarled with apparent satisfaction.

"Ridley, there's something else out there and it's more powerful than you can imagine." Link warned.

Ridley scoffed.

"And WHAT could be THAT powerful?" He asked, as if it was some cruel sick joke.

"Those huge guys right behind you." Sonic said as he pointed behind Ridley.

Ridley's eyes narrowed in suspicion as he slowly turned around and those narrowed eyes snapped open real wide when he saw what was there. There, in all their hideous glory, were five Dragonoids; Red Wyvern, Blue Firedrake, Green Salamander, Yellow Drache, and White Amphis; all with toothy smiles on their faces. All the bounty hunters' eyes would have widened if they had any and Samus' did too, though you couldn't see them.

"Nice little troops, metalhead." Wyvern said, sarcastically.

"Mind if we annihilate them and take your key item?" Firedrake added.

Ridley just stood there, flabbergasted at what happened and then the new creatures charged with their claws and teeth bared.


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20: Crushed**

Ridley couldn't believe what he was seeing. These guys were the colors of gemstones and towered over even him and he was almost eight feet tall. Red Wyvern, seeing this fear in Ridley, raised a foot to try and stomp him out of existence. However, Ridley was quicker than he thought and he spread his metal wings before taking off. Red Wyvern wasn't worried, seeing as White Amphis' tail was coming to meet him. The second head snapped at him, missing the cyborg's metal foot by inches. Ridley opened his mouth as the Gatling Gun activated again, and although the bullets pelted all five of them, they didn't even penetrate their thick scales.

"HA! You honestly think your little technology will work on us?" Blue Firedrake asked, as though the answer was obvious.

"Yeah. Who's that shooting straw at me?! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Salamander said as he put his claws up.

Green Salamander's claws suddenly lit up and he made a vertical slash with them, creating four energy beams in the shape of claw marks at Ridley. They missed him too, but when he evaded, Yellow Drache was there to meet him in the air. The yellow Dragonoid seized Ridley with his taloned foot and Ridley could only struggle against his grip.

"Now, tell us where the Sacred Chozo Statue is or else," Drache threatened, crushing Ridley's wings in the process, "You're doomed to die a very painful death."

Just then, something blasted through Drache's wing and he fell face-flat on the ground. Trace had used his Sniper Rifle and saved his "boss". This only seemed to make the Dragonoids angry, because they charged and became a wall of roaring behemoths.

In a sudden movement, White Amphis' tail shot forward like a cobra and clenched Sylux in its teeth. Sylux struggled while cursing in some unknown alien language, but it halted when there was a sickening CRUNCH and the head dropped Sylux's limp body to the ground.

Red Wyvern shot thin streams of fire at Noxus and they seemed to wrap around him like constrictors and crystallized into bright red ropes. When he was sure Noxus was unable to escape, he crushed him under his foot.

"Useless cockroaches." Wyvern said as he shook the remains of Noxus' armor and his guts off his foot.

Sonic, Link, and Samus were about to charge and help these guys when Blue Firedrake saw it coming. He took a deep breath and belched blue flames that created a wall of fire as blue as sapphires.

"How dumb do you think I am?" Firedrake asked, grinning and showing off his sharp teeth.

"SHOOT!" Samus cursed, stamping her foot.

Trace was about to shoot down Yellow Drache when Green Salamander smashed his frail exoskeleton with his tail. It shattered many of the red alien's limbs and even smashed the gun off its owner's arm. With another swipe, Green Salamander brought his tail down on Trace and crushed him like a gorilla smashing a twig.

Spire was the only one left and Blue Firedrake was going to make sure he died as well. He exhaled blue flame that crystallized into a large blue sword three quarters of his size and beckoned for Spire to bring it on. His fellow Dragonoids came to assist him, but Firedrake waved his hand.

"Back away. I'll deal with this volcanic bug myself." Firedrake commanded.

Wyvern grinned as he motioned backward for them to back off. Yellow Drache also moved two steps back, making sure to put as much weight as he could on Ridley's metal body.

Spire's right arm turned into a kind of cannon and he aimed it at Firedrake. A blast of what appeared to be lava erupted from it and it raced at Firedrake. The Dragonoid wasn't worried and raised his sword so that the lava bounced harmlessly off before he quickly leapt into the air. Firedrake kicked Spire over like you would a toddler and brought his sword down onto Spire. The blue sword pierced the rocklike hide and lava oozed out as though it was blood. Spire's body twitched for a while and then stood still. All of Ridley's bounty hunters were dead.

Yellow Drache dropped Ridley with his foot and laughed as he saw Ridley try to limp away. He let the metal dragon try to crawl away for a while before seizing the cyborg in his mighty hand and raised him up to his large eye.

"Now that your bodyguards have been taken care of, where is the Sacred Statue? Your reward is your life…or at least what's left of it. So where is it?" Drache snarled.

Ridley was quiet and breathed very heavily, but then he spoke in a very weak voice.

"I…have it. It's attached to my arm…and it gives me strength." Ridley murmured.

Indeed, a small statue shaped like a Chozo was on his arm and it was emanating an almost unnoticeable glow. However, when Red Wyvern went over and took it off with his claws, it began to glow like the moon at night. When Wyvern removed it, Ridley's labored breathing only became harder.

"Thank you, scrap metal. Like I said, your reward is what's left of your life. Enjoy." Drache said before he dropped Ridley to the ground with a CLANG.

Ridley's mechanical body was sparking from several mechanical malfunctions as he tried to get up before he slumped to the ground, unconscious. The Dragonoids, having won the battle, took off with Yellow Drache gripping White Amphis' shoulders with his talons. In a fiery portal, they vanished to their own dimension.

The blue flames that Blue Firedrake created to block Sonic, Link, and Samus vanished and Sonic pounded a nearby tree with his fist. The only result he got was a throbbing hand.

"Sonic, don't hurt yourself." Link said as he strode past him to Ridley.

Samus had beat him there and was already beginning repairs on Ridley's body. However, she had to work quickly if the metal reptile was going to live.

"Why are you helping your archenemy?" Link asked.

"There's a much greater evil out there. I think you can cut him some slack." Samus said as she continued repairing.

"I'd love to stay, Samus, but Sonic and I are on a mission. You'll have to take care of Ridley, do you understand?" Link asked.

Samus, seeing that this mission was very urgent, nodded with a "Yes." Link helped Sonic up to his feet and then they zoomed off with blurs of blue and green. If they were right, then it meant that there weren't too many key items left.


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21: Startling discovery**

The Chaotix crew continued to cruise through space. Espio and Vector were playing Go Fish while Charmy was humming happily and playing a handheld video game.

"Got any threes?" Espio asked.

Vector was about to answer when static came onto their screen. Vector whirled around and looked at the large screen. In a matter of seconds, Vector's old buddy Tails came into focus.

"Uh, go fish." Vector said, not paying attention.

While Vector was walking away, Espio looked at his cards. There, in his hand, was a three.

"Lousy liar." Espio muttered, but Vector didn't hear him.

"Guys! Guys! I found some interesting things on our new enemies, the Dragonoids." Tails said, urgently.

Vector put on a small communicator and said, "Fire away."

"Remember that time when the Black Arms came here and then suddenly disappeared?" Tails asked.

"Yeah. That was devastating…" Vector started, but Tails cut him off.

"I just found out that Shadow didn't wipe them all out. It was another species. I think it was the Dragonoids."

"What?" Espio asked suddenly and somewhat impatiently.

Vector's jaw dropped, Espio turned very pale, and Charmy was so stunned by this that he lost the game he was playing.

"They're THAT strong?" Vector asked in disbelief.

"Yes. However, this destruction is nothing compared to what you guys found out. It makes it all the better that you find Link and Sonic before they do." Tails said, still very urgently.

Vector regained his look of confidence and said, "Don't worry. We'll find them no matter how much they move around."

"Good luck, Vector. Tails out." Tails said just before his face vanished into the static.

Vector thought for a while and then began to fumble with the controls of the ship.

"Vector, now's not exactly the time to go online here." Charmy said, his arms crossed.

"Charmy, that's not what I'm trying to do. I'm going to see if I can widen the range on our communicator for an old friend…"

Universes away, in Hyrule, Fox was patrolling the castle. This was the month that Zelda and Krystal were scheduled to have the babies and security around them had tightened since that Dragonoid attacked them.

As Fox was on his shift on the hall, his communicator got a weak signal. He put up his own communicator and activated his wristband.

"Hello? Is someone out there?" He asked.

With a crackle of static, Vector's head came into picture and Fox almost fell backward in surprise.

"Hey, Fox. Long time no see, huh?" Vector said, cheerily.

"Vector? Have you been messing with Tails' technology?" Fox accused.

"NO…yes." Vector said quietly.

"Uh, yeah. Anything else you want to tell me, you klutz?" Fox asked, remembering Vector's antics.

"Actually, yes. It has to do with the Dragonoids." Vector said, immediately catching Fox's attention, "Have there been any short-term invasions during the past year?" Vector asked.

Fox dipped his head in thought and tried to think quickly so that he wouldn't lose his connection. Then, rather suddenly, it hit him.

"Now that I think about it, yes. A few years ago, my team and I beat a race of aliens called the Aparoids. However, shortly after we returned from Hyrule, we learned that the leader of these creatures' physical form may have been destroyed, but her psyche lived on. This psyche lived on in some kind of crystal orb the size of an asteroid and it hung over Corneria for about two months. Every few weeks, this orb would create aparoids and attack the main attack fleets of the planet." Fox told his "friend".

"Yeah, that sounds tough. Reminds me of the time I…" Vector began, but Fox continued over him and the klutzy croc was forced to listen again.

"Anyway, these aparoids devastated Corneria for weeks until the same kind of crystal orb crashed into Corneria, but it no longer seemed…alive. In fact, it had streaks of carbonization all over it." Fox continued.

"Carbonization?" Vector asked as he scratched his head.

"The orb was BURNED, Vector. However, it wasn't likely those flames appeared from nowhere. These blasts of fire were precise and AIMED. At first, I thought it could be nothing. But now that you're telling me about these Dragonoids, I have reason to believe that THEY did this." Fox filled in.

"WHAT?! The Dragonoids destroyed THOSE THINGS?!" Vector asked in disbelief.

"I don't see why they wouldn't. They're certainly strong enough." Fox said.

"That makes this mission all the more dangerous. I've got to find L…BZZZZT" Vector's communication came to an end.

"Vector? VECTOR!" Fox said into his own communicator, but it was no use.

Back aboard the spaceship, Vector turned on his seat and turned to Espio and Charmy. They had heard everything and they were just standing there with their mouths agape.

"Amazing, huh?" Vector asked in pure shock.

"THEY destroyed the Black Arms AND those Aparoid thingies?" Charmy asked in fright.

"And I thought Black Doom was destructive…" Espio said, not even knowing that he said it.

"That makes it all the more important to find Link and Sonic. We've got to find them or we'll end up like the Black Arms and those…things." Vector said as he took the pilot's seat and followed Link and Sonic's signal.


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22: Not just a dream...**

In just a matter of seconds, Sonic and Link appeared on a large grassy plain. Link was greatly reminded of Lon-Lon Ranch; all it needed was Malon, horses, and a fence and it would easily be Lon-Lon. Sonic whistled, very impressed at this sight.

"Wow. I shoulda come here some time ago. There's plenty of space for me to run around here." Sonic said, looking out at the beauty of the area.

Link looked around and then he saw a familiar pink thing running toward them faster than an Olympic sprinter. Its eyes were as wide as dinner plates and it was leaving behind a great cloud of dust. Link smiled as he realized who this was.

"Hey, Kirby. How's it going?" Link said, waving.

Kirby simply ran by before shouting, "Talk later! RUN NOW!"

A quizzical look crossed his face as he looked past where Kirby came from. Right behind him was a big blue guy with red robes and some snail creature. The blue guy suddenly ran past him with the snail close behind him and appeared to be very frightened.

"OUTTA MY WAY! OUTTA MY WAY!" The blue guy shouted.

"CAN'T YOU SEE THEY'RE GONNA EAT US?!" The snail shouted.

Link looked past all of them to see the thing he had been dreading since the day he saw them. It was an army of Dragonoids charging toward them with swords, daggers, and axes. Some had wings, some did not. Some had horns on their face while some had spines down their backs. Link drew his sword, but then Sonic pointed something out.

"Link! That's an army you're about to face! It's about a thousand to one here!" Sonic reminded.

Link decided not to leave Kirby or Sonic, so he ran off with them to try and find an alternative.

After running for many minutes, they lost the Dragonoid army and found shelter in a nearby trench. Kirby and the other two guys were gasping for breath and they were so tuckered out, even breathing was a labor.

"It's…nice to see you too…Link." Kirby said between gasps.

"NOW I get a greeting." Link said, rolling his eyes.

"By the way, who were those guys following you?" Sonic asked with a shrug.

The big blue guy immediately stood up, wielding a hammer at Sonic like an accusing finger. He spoke in a deep, southern voice.

"I'll have ya know I'm King Dedede of Dreamland!" The blue guy said.

The snail gently pushed Dedede's hammer down, trying to relax him. The snail spoke in a kind of high, scratchy voice.

"Your majesty, take it easy. Remember your blood pressure. You wouldn't want another leech treatment, would ya?" It asked.

"Oh, alright, Escargoon." Dedede said, pocketing the hammer.

"So…I see you have a little Dragonoid problem." Link pointed out.

"You know about those things that were chasing us?" Kirby asked, suddenly.

"Of course he does. They attacked our worlds and they're searching for a special thing called a 'Key Item'. Do you know of anything very special in this world?" Sonic asked, scratching his head.

King Dedede ignored Link's question and scratched his chin in deep thought. Escargoon smacked himself in the forehead.

"Oh, great. Whenever he comes up with a difficult question, he has to come up with some stupid answer." He said to himself.

"I know! I'll find us some monsters and take those dopey dragons out!" Dedede said, pounding one fist into another.

"Uh…I don't think that's a good idea. We've seen the Dragonoids take out some of the best fighters we've ever seen single-handed. Knowing them, they'll take out anything you throw at them." Link told the king, recalling what they did to Knuckles, the Dreadfin, the Kremlings, and those other bounty hunters.

"Maybe there's more to this that meets the eye." A mysterious voice said.

Everyone whirled and everyone but Sonic said, "Metaknight!"

Sonic cocked his head slightly to the side and asked, "Who's this?"

Kirby turned to Sonic and answered, "Metaknight is a Star Warrior like me. Only…he's a bit stronger and a lot more experienced."

Metaknight's cape was folded up against his body as he spoke the wise words of a sensei.

"Together, an iron chain is very strong. But if you find the weakest link in it, you can easily shatter it. We must use THAT to our advantage." Metaknight said, throwing his cape apart.

Little did they know that the enemy was much more powerful than they suspected. They already had something up their sleeve…


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23: The weakness**

Ryu sat in his throne, strumming his claws on the arm. Suddenly, Red Wyvern, his top general was rushing up to him, his claws clacking on the stone floor. Red Wyvern bowed, his wings draped over his shoulder like a red, scaly robe.

"The army has attacked Dreamland, my lord." Wyvern reported.

Ryu smiled, showing off all of his sharp teeth and stood up his as he walked toward a kind of panel with a dragon skull on it. He put his large hand on it and it started glowing bright red. In a flash of light, there was a red portal as bright as fire glowing in front of him. He turned to his general and pointed out his clawed finger.

"Good. Our decoy is working. Wait for me to return and make sure my troops remember their place." He said in his deep, snarling voice.

"Yes, sir." Wyvern said as his master walked through the portal.

Back in Dreamland, Link, Kirby, Sonic, Metaknight, Dedede, and Escargoon were plotting out a strategy. Metaknight was using his sword to move little figurines of everyone. He even made Dedede's and Escargoon's together.

"Alright, here's the plan. We know that the leader of this army is the biggest soldier with the horns on the side of his face. Dedede and Escargoon will cause a distraction while Kirby flies above and bombards any enemies left behind. Sonic, you'll make sure that none of them stray. If any do, strike them down and also cut off their retreat. As for me and Link, we'll handle the rest of the army and the leader ourselves. Any questions?" Metaknight said.

Dedede and Escargoon raised their hands. Metaknight saw this and had a good idea on what they were thinking.

"Any questions NOT about our battle positions?" He added.

Both Dedede and Escargoon lowered their hands. Link nodded, Sonic gave the thumbs' up, and Kirby smiled a cute smile. Dedede and Escargoon simply muttered under their breath.

"I hate being bait." Dedede whispered.

"That's easy for you to say, YOU may not turn into a fancy dinner." Escargoon whispered back.

The army of Dragonoids marched through the meadows, smashing anything in their way and anyone who was against them. The largest one was right in the middle as they continued toward a nearby castle. Little did they know that their leader had set them up.

"Stay on target for the castle. There is no breathing soul that stands in our way." The leader said.

Just then, the strangest thing happened. A series of bullets started firing from out of nowhere and pelted the ground like hailstones, causing some of the troops to either stagger backward or scatter. The leader flinched and looked up to see Dedede and Escargoon in an old-fashioned car with a Gatling gun near the side door.

"Nobody but Kirby messes with MY kingdom!" Dedede said as he pressed buttons on his vehicle.

"Only his royal highness chooses who comes and who goes on Pop Star." Escargoon said, firing the gun repeatedly.

Bullets and missiles flew everywhere, striking down some of the army, but there were still many more to go. The leader was about to return fire when something dropped from the sky and exploded, causing a fraction of the army to get blown into oblivion. Kirby was riding a Warpstar, dropping shiny blasts of energy from it. The leader snarled in anger and then pointed forward with his mighty claw.

"ATTACK!" The leader roared, almost deafeningly.

Some Dragonoids charged with their weapons at Dedede and Escargoon's car while others shot streams of fire into the air to try and shoot Kirby out of the sky. They were having little luck on either of them, seeing as Kirby could easily fly away while Dedede's car swerved past some or ran over others. When almost half of the army was gone, the leader turned around.

"RETREAT!" He roared in fear, but other people had different plans.

Sonic sped right across them, stampeding over anything in his way and began to run in a small perimeter-circle so that they couldn't escape. As he ran around, Sonic smirked as some tried to back away, but were also trapped with each other.

"Face it, you're not going anywhere." He said as he sped back and forth again.

The leader saw that they were trapped and tried to retreat to the sides, but when Sonic cut right through a troop that tried, he chose otherwise. Just then, Link and Metaknight leapt in and began hacking and slashing their way through the remnants of the army. The leader began plowing through his own troops toward the fighting duo and produced a large club with spikes covering every inch of its receiving end.

"You will not interfere with Lord Ryu's plans. I'll make sure of it." The beast growled.

Link and Metaknight had already beaten almost every troop when they saw the leader wading his way toward them, club raised high. Metaknight threw off his cape to reveal batlike wings. In another second, he was gone and flying in the air to avoid the club's swing. Link quickly dove and rolled on impact. When the club hit the ground, the leader quickly brought it into a horizontal swing that Link quickly leapt over to slash the thing's legs. The dragonoid grunted in surprise as he looked at his wound and glared back up at his opponent. The beast then suddenly caught Link, not with his club, but with his fist in a backhand that hit the hylian hero full on. Link tumbled over the ground and was about to be crushed by the club. However, Metaknight swooped down and quickly snatched Link, causing the club to hit nothing but the ground.

"Uh…Thanks." Link said, a little confused for words.

"You can thank me later. Right now, we've got a leader to take down." Metaknight replied.

Metaknight flew in close and let go just when Link was above the leader. Link flew through the air, his sword out like an arrowhead and the Dragonoid leader looked up to see Link drive his sword right in between his eyes. In another second, he flopped to the ground, as still as a statue. They won…or so they thought.

A red portal had just appeared at a castle and Ryu emerged from it. He wouldn't fit in there, seeing as he was twenty feet tall, but he didn't need to go in. He simply waltzed over to the wall and smashed it open with his foot. He looked down and saw several small knights draw their swords in an attempt to attack him. However, Ryu's thick hide combined with his enormous size easily repelled the attacks, so he decided to kill these things in one fell swoop and belched a large blast of fire at the several knights, scorching everyone and everything inside. When he explored the courtyard, he had expected the Key Item to be there. However, his hopes faded as he saw nothing, that is until he sniffed the air and smiled.

"So that's where it is…You had me fooled for a while, pathetic king."


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24: The shortest victory**

On the field, Link, Dedede, Escargoon, Kirby, and Sonic were celebrating their victory over the Dragonoid army. Their strategy worked and Dedede was happiest of all.

"I told you those dopey dragons stood no chance against me." Dedede said, his chest puffed out in pride.

"Yeah, no one stands up to you, Triple D." Escargoon said, assuring the king with false cheers.

While the others were celebrating, Metaknight was just standing there. His eyes were just staring far to the north. Link took notice of this and looked where Metaknight's yellow eyes were focused on. What he saw horrified him.

"GUYS! Look to the north!" Link shouted.

Sonic and Kirby stopped and so did Dedede and Escargoon. And when they saw the thing that Metaknight was watching, they all froze as though exposed to subzero temperatures. Sonic's eyes widened in surprise, Kirby gasped, and Dedede and Escargoon's jaws dropped as their eyes bugged out.

King Dedede's castle was billowing a large trail of smoke and some flames were licking its bottom. Above the roaring flames, one could hear frightened cries in despair as troops were trapped in the inferno.

"MY CASTLE!" Dedede shouted, hopping in his car, quickly followed by Escargoon.

Just before the vehicle started, there was an earthshaking roar and part of the castle's east side got blasted into pebbles. Then, Link saw it. Something like a black, scaly bat was crawling up one of the castle pillars. The spikes down the neck and on the tail were noticeable anywhere and even from many yards away, Link saw its burning eyes.

"It's Ryu!" Link said, pointing toward the thing on the tower.

"You mean the leader of these lizards?" Kirby asked, curiously.

"Link, you actually saw this guy?" Sonic asked.

"Yes. He defeated Ganon, the man that Concolor failed to revive, and he emerged from his battle without even a scratch. It took me and Fox hours to beat that guy, but Ryu did it in just a matter of seconds." Link said, reminded of the day he first met the Dragonoid overlord.

Sonic stared as Link told his story, though he had already heard of this, Kirby and Metaknight didn't. After a bit of an awkward silence, the blue hedgehog glanced at the vehicle racing for the castle.

"Knowing the strength of these Dragonoids, those two don't stand a chance!" Sonic said before racing off.

Kirby quickly seized Link by the shoulder before the Hylian took off with speed to rival Sonic's. It was like being on a racecar with at least three or four times the speed.

Ryu searched the windows, scaring the life out of Waddle Dee soldiers everywhere. Every once in a while, he stuck his large hand into a window and tried to feel around for it. If the key item wasn't in this room, he would set it ablaze. Every now and then, some of the soldiers would have the nerve to spear his fingers. That proved to be a mistake for all of them, because every time they did, the Dragonoid King would reach in with his hand, take them out and drop them a good ten stories to the ground.

"Pathetic." Ryu said with what could only be described as pride.

Ryu had burned just about every room when he finally came across one he didn't check. He was about halfway to the window when something shot him in the back.

"A challenger? I can't resist." Ryu said as he turned to see who would do such a thing.

Ryu laughed an almost silent laugh as Dedede and Escargoon raced at him in their old-fashioned car. He opened his mouth and belched a fireball at them, but they swerved and it missed.

"HA! Ya' missed us, you fire-spitting salamander!" Dedede shot at Ryu.

The "king" of Pop Star pushed a button on his control panel and a missile shot out and pelted at the black Dragonoid. Ryu simply laughed at their attempt.

"Perfect." He said with a toothy grin.

When the missile almost hit him, Ryu jumped off the wall and spread his massive wing to pull out of a dive bomb that would have crushed every bone in his body. The missile missed him and hit the part of the building he was on as well as revealing the one thing he wanted: the Key Item was in that room.

"Nice work, sire. You just destroyed your room." Escargoon commented.

"Thanks for the support. Don't make me salt you." Dedede threatened.

The delinquent duo were about to continue when Ryu flew up close to them and unleashed a blast of fire strong enough to level a forest. Dedede and Escargoon dove out of the car just when the flames hit. For a few seconds, the flames continued to lick the car and when the fire died down, the car was now no more than an red-hot molten metal and the dirt underneath it was now muddy glass. Dedede and Escargoon weren't in the blast, but they were still black from the soot and Ryu towered over them, laughing at their cowardice.

"As you can see, you have no chance of overcoming my power." Ryu said, glaring down at them with his orangish-yellow eyes.

"Ever hear of the word 'challenge'?" Another voice asked.

Ryu looked up and saw Kirby on a Warpstar racing toward him. Ryu chuckled at this and flapped his wings many times, creating a large gust of wind. At the same time, he breathed fire, causing the flames to grow into an enormous wall of fire. Kirby went over the fire, but when he cleared it, Ryu was there to meet him. Ryu performed a vertical spin forward and brought his foot smashing into Kirby's ride. Kirby's Warpstar fell to the ground, but Kirby landed on his feet and he quickly ran to the side to avoid Ryu's dinosaur-like foot from crushing him like a grapefruit. However, when he got a reasonable distance, he looked behind him and Ryu was gone. However, he didn't have to look long, seeing as Ryu was now right in front of him. Ryu lashed out with his foot and kicked the puffball like you would a cockroach. Kirby flew through the air and bounced several times until he came to a complete halt and lay on his front.

"Pathetic puffball." Ryu growled.

Suddenly, something pierced the scales on his right shoulder and shone like the sun. It stung like a hornet and Ryu actually winced as he tried to block out the light from his eyes. However, Ryu recovered from the pain, yanked the arrow out of his arm, and tossed it to the ground like a useless toy. The Dragonoid leader looked around and saw Link with his bow out and a Light Arrow cocked in his bow. Ryu growled and knew that he didn't want another light arrow in his chest, so he blasted fire into the air similar to the fire pillar he used on Ganon. The sky turned from blue to blood red and, instead of a huge column of fire, a rain of fireballs fell from the sky. Link quickly ran from side to side to avoid getting his tunic scorched. However, he wasn't expecting the thing that Ryu did.

Ryu knew that Link would now be moving as fast as that "blasted hedgehog" and exhaled through his nostrils. Instead of fire, out came a cloud of pitch-black smoke that left Link momentarily sightless. Link couldn't see, but he was sure he was racing straight at Ryu. However, when he cleared the cloud, Ryu was gone and when Link heard the sound of flapping wings, he knew where the giant dragon was.

"What the?!" Link shouted as he looked up.

In the sky was something like a giant bat from below, but it was actually Ryu. The Dragonoid lord then fell, feet-first and landed with a crash. His feet missed Link, but his massive hand didn't. When Ryu landed, Link leapt to the side to avoid the feet, but Ryu's massive hand swatted him away. The Hylian flew through the air and landed on his stomach. He tried to get up, but lay back down in sheer agony.

Ryu knew what would happen to this boy's colleague and quickly turned around to create a ring of fire. The circle's radius was fifty meters long and right in the center of that circle was Sonic, who screeched to a halt. The wall of flame was not just wide, its flames reached up over a hundred feet high and Sonic couldn't clear something of that size without getting his feet scorched. Ryu grinned at the hedgehog, but was more than cautious enough to look at him for too long. In one movement, he spun around and caught Metaknight in midair with his tail. The spikes along the tail actually pierced Metaknight's armor and sent the professional star warrior hurtling to the ground like a cannonball.

Ryu grinned as he took off and headed for the castle to claim his prize. He looked into the huge hole that Dedede created with the missile and saw a kind of staff with a large star on the end. He inserted his large hand through the hole and grasped it with his fingertips to take it out.

"At last, the Star Rod is mine." Ryu said, his grin broadening by the second.

Without further hesitation, the black Dragonoid flew off and created the red portal to take him home.


	25. Chapter 25

**Chapter 25: Chaos in dreamland**

Vector, Espio, and Charmy were in their ship and doing some of their favorite activities. Vector was sleeping in the pilot's chair, Espio was sitting at the same table where he and Vector played cards, and Charmy was playing a handheld game that looked like a gameboy advance SP.

"Charmy, give me that!" Espio said, getting up to try and snatch it.

"No way, Espio. You play when I lose my last life!" Charmy said, taking it out of Espio's reach.

Just then, the game beeped in a way that said, "Game Over". Charmy stood there, his eyes transfixed on it, and after a few seconds, he then handed it to Espio.

"Go crazy." Charmy said as he hovered away.

Just then a siren went off and Vector woke with a start, almost falling out of his seat. He then looked up and saw they were near a star-shaped planet.

"Prepare to land, boys. Link and Sonic, here we come!" Vector said, activating the landing gear.

The Chaotix Crew looked around and eventually came across something their eyes had never beheld.

"OH MY GOSH!" Vector said, his eyes widening.

"Whoa." Espio said, his eyes equally wide.

"What the…" Charmy said curiously.

Just ahead of them was a patch of burned land. It was devoid of grass or any other form of plant life. Just bare scorched earth. In the middle of this was a patch of muddy glass, molten metal, and the air stunk with burned rubber.

"My best guess is that this used to be a car of sorts." Vector said, inspecting the patch closely.

"THIS? A CAR?" Charmy said, fearfully.

"Maybe those guys over there can give us a hand." Espio said, pointing to four people nearby.

They ran over to them and Vector immediately recognized one of them. He was small, round, and pink.

"Kirby?" Vector asked.

The pink puffball turned around, surprising everyone around him. There was also King Dedede and Escargoon.

"Vector? Is that you?" Kirby asked.

"No. I'm Shadow the hedgehog. What's it to ya?" Vector answered.

King Dedede shrugged as he turned to Escargoon and asked, "Who's THIS doofus?"

"DOOFUS?! Look who's talkin', ya blue dweeb!" Vector shot back, furiously.

"Uh, your majesty? I think it's a good idea NOT to mess with this alligator." Escargoon said, trying to hold Dedede back.

"I'm a crocodile, not an alligator. THERE'S A DIFFERENCE!" Vector growled at the ugly-looking snail.

"Vector, you need to get to the point." Espio said, elbowing his friend.

"Oh, alright." Vector said, reluctantly, "Have any of you guys seen a guy in green and a fast, blue guy?"

Dedede scratched his chin for a while and Escargoon did the same. Finally, another voice answered their question.

"I believe they left just a few minutes ago." It answered.

Vector turned to see Metaknight and shrugged. He obviously didn't like the whole sexy, Spanish accent.

"Who's the Zorro wannabe?" He asked, but then something hit him. "WHAT?! THEY'RE GONE AGAIN?!"

"Oh yeah, those two guys who helped us fight the dragon." Dedede said, his finger pointing up.

Vector froze and slowly turned on the spot. His face was full of shock and his mouth was hanging open.

"D-did you say gulp dragon?" Vector asked nervously.

"Yeah. That lousy lizard that burned this whole place, melted my car, and destroyed my castle!" Dedede said angrily, putting up a fist.

Dedede pointed to a place just to the side and the Chaotix looked. It WAS a castle, but smoke was billowing from the towers and there were huge chunks taken out of it.

"THAT used to be your house?" Espio asked.

"Looks more like something a firefighter put out." Charmy said, amazed.

"Was this dragon red?" Vector asked, still looking at the burned castle.

"Nah. It was big, black, and covered in spikes. That guy in green seemed to know him. He called it, 'Ryu'. Does that ring a bell?" Escargoon asked.

"Not really. But I think that this 'Ryu' guy is the Dragonoids' head honcho." Vector said.

Without further hesitation, Vector seized Charmy by the wing and Espio by the arm and took off. They hopped into their ship and took off. Things were really starting to get dangerous here. If one dragonoid did THAT, who knew what a whole army would do?


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter 26: Super Dimensional Heroes**

Link and Sonic appeared right in a kingdom just outside a town square. Sonic looked around and let out a whistle.

"Quite a place here. Whoever lives here must be pretty busy." Sonic said, glancing around.

"I haven't seen a place like this since I first saw Hyrule Castle Town." Link said, remembering that day when he was ten.

"Ah, was that the time when you first met Zelda?" Sonic asked, looking at his buddy.

"Yeah, it all began when..." Link began, but someone cut him off.

"Link? Sonic?" A funny-sounding Italian voice asked.

Sonic and Link froze and, for a moment, they thought the world was standing still. Then Sonic instantly recognized the voice. However, Link knew who it was, but he didn't want to see this one after what happened at Gerudo Desert.

"Do I dare turn around?" Sonic asked.

"Might as well get it over with…" Link answered.

They both turned around and saw none other than Mario and Luigi standing right behind them. Sonic slapped his forehead and Link rolled his eyes.

"Hey, Mario." They both said in unison.

Mario shrugged and went over to them with Luigi close behind. Luigi instantly knew Link from the adventure on Yoshi Island about a year ago, but knew nothing of Sonic. So, Mario decided to give a proper introduction.

"Luigi, this is Sonic the hedgehog. He says he's the fastest thing alive and he says he outpaced a rocket once." Mario said, gesturing toward the blue hedgehog.

"Really? Prove it." Luigi said, suspiciously.

"Okay, what do you want me to do?" Sonic asked, his expression that of an "Oh, come on" attitude.

Luigi thought for a while and paced in a circle so much, he almost drilled into the ground. Finally, he got an idea and a light bulb appeared over his head. Luigi took notice of it and batted it away.

"Lousy light…Anyway, I want you to run over to that house WAY over there. Go on the roof when you get there." Luigi said, pointing to a house so far away it was almost on the castle borders.

In the blink of an eye, Sonic was nowhere near Link and Luigi stood there, his eyes wide at the experience. Then, he heard a familiar voice from almost three hundred yards away.

"HEY! OVER HERE! WANT ME TO COME BACK?" Sonic shouted.

Luigi looked to the distance and saw a blue speck on top of a house that was waving its arms like a windmill. Luigi was ready to call the blue dude over, but Sonic didn't need an order and Luigi saw him run the full way or at least thought he saw him. He stood there, just as dumbfounded as before.

"You ARE fast." Luigi said, amazed.

"Now you know why they call me 'Sonic'." Sonic said, putting his face so close to Luigi's, he touched his small black nose with Luigi's big round one.

"Mario, we need your help. We're fighting a universal threat and we need you to help us. We're looking for a very special item that's special beyond the most expensive treasures. Do you know of anything?" Link asked.

"Hmm…" Mario thought, pulling his mustache slightly, "Now that you mention it…Yes. I think the answer may be in Rogueport. I went there once and I think I have a pretty good idea of what to do." He answered.

"You mean…" Luigi began.

"Yup." Mario answered.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's GET going!" Link said, not wanting to waste any time.

"Okay, if it's that urgent, we'll get going as soon as possible." Luigi said, heading off with Sonic, Link, and Mario close behind. 

Unbeknownst to them, there was a hiding turtle thing. It stood on two legs like a person and it had a green shell. The minute it heard these guys' conversation, it rushed off like there was no tomorrow.

The turtle rushed off until it came to a kind of wasteland with a big, black castle on it. It ran through the doors and rushed up to the throne room. There, on the throne, was a big, turtle thing with a spiky shell and flaming red hair. The turtle thing was fast asleep and snoring loudly until the turtle spoke in a jittery voice.

"L-L-Lord B-B-Bowser?" The turtle asked.

Bowser snorted and finally woke up saying, "Roast those Mario brothers!"

When Bowser realized that he said it out loud, he blushed slightly. He then roughened up and spoke again.

"Alright, Larry, I'll bite. What is it, ya lousy twit?" He asked impatiently.

"Your majesty, I just saw the Mario Brothers talking to two strangers about treasure or something. I think they're off to find it now." Larry answered.

"Treasure…WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME EARLIER?!" Bowser roared in anger.

"You were fast asleep, your majesty." Larry answered specifically.

"Oh. Well, where are they going?" Bowser asked, shrugging.

"I, uh, think they were heading for Rogueport." The nervous Koopa Troopa answered.

"Oh, THAT'S perfect. Last time we went there, I did all kinds of things that were…just plain stupid." Bowser thought to himself, remembering all the trouble he went through in Rogueport, pursuing Mario to find the treasure.

"Something wrong, my lord?" Larry asked.

"Nothing's wrong. Contact the Koopas we have in Rogueport and find the Ding-Dong brothers and those two guys with 'em. We're getting to the treasure FIRST this time."

"Yes, sir!" Larry said, rushing off.


	27. Chapter 27

**Chapter 27: Blasted Bowser**

After a long sea journey, Link, Sonic, Mario, and Luigi finally arrived at the shanty-looking city of Rogueport. Sonic stepped off and gave the place a look around.

"So this is Rogueport. They need new wallpaper." Sonic said, looking around.

"Looks like the Castle Town when Ganondorf was in power." Link said, recalling the memory.

"It may not look like much, but the cool stuff isn't here. It's down below." Mario said, pointing at the floor.

"If you need info on Rogueport, ask Mario. I've only come here once in a while on my own adventure." Luigi said, gesturing to Mario.

"Uh, yeah. We'll remember that. Now where is this treasure?" Link asked, wanting to get onto the mission.

Mario was about to answer when someone interrupted them. The voice appeared to be raspy and a little quiet, but there was something fishy about it.

"You lookin' for treasure?" It asked.

Mario and Luigi whirled around while Link and Sonic just stood there, staring at this person. It was a very big guy wearing a cloak that concealed all but a pair of black eyes and a beak. Mario folded his arms across his chest and Link cocked one eyebrow just as Sonic tilted his head in confusion.

"Who the heck are you?" Luigi asked, one eyebrow cocked.

"I'm a treasure hunter. And if you're lookin' for treasure, I'm pretty sure I know where it is." The guy answered.

"Well, do you have something called the Crystal Stars?" Mario asked.

"Crystal stars?" Link asked.

"The Crystal Stars are a bunch of gems I found quite a while ago. I used it to save this world from eternal darkness and I had to beat some hag with an attitude. I found them again, but I hid them from Bowser." Mario explained.

"You think THAT is what we're looking for?" Link asked.

"Most likely. Now, mister," Mario said, "Do you think you have what we're looking for?"

"Certainly. I hear of these Crystal Stars. Follow me." The guy said, turning to leave.

Link and Mario followed easily, but Luigi and Sonic lagged behind. There was something fishy about this cloaked guy and it was so thick that you could cut it with a knife.

"You ever have the feeling that there's more to this guy than meets the eye?" Sonic asked.

"Uh-huh." Luigi answered.

A few minutes later, they arrived at a shabby-looking house. The cloaked man stepped in and so did everyone else. The place had nothing in there, save a cobweb or two.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Link said, fingering his sword.

"Oh, I'm absolutely positive…" The guy said as he stepped on a switch.

Sonic suddenly knew what was happening and took a step forward, but then the floor gave way underneath him and his friends. They were standing right on a trap door that they hadn't even known about. The fall wasn't much and it led to a kind of slide and they slid all the way into a jail. Sonic landed first, but then Luigi landed on him, closely followed by Mario. Just when Sonic thought it couldn't get any worse, it did when Link landed on Luigi and the combined weight on Sonic's back caused his eyes to bulge.

"OH! THAT IS REAL NICE!" Sonic strained as he tried to get up.

"WHAT?!" Link shouted as he got off Mario.

Sonic shoved Mario and Luigi off his back and then saw where they were.

"WHERE THE HECK ARE WE?!" Sonic asked, running frantically around the cramped cell.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Decided to 'Drop in', huh?" A deep growling voice asked.

There, just outside the cell was Bowser and the cloaked man. Mario's face contorted with rage as he seized the bars and tried reaching out for Bowser with one arm. Strangely, Bowser was accompanied by the exact same guy who led them here. And this guy was…smiling a rather malicious smile.

"Hey! Cloaky-guy! Who in the name of Koopa are you?" Mario asked, gripping the bars of his cage.

The cloaked man seized his cloak and ripped it off him. The "man" was a big, muscular bird with long hair like a rock star, yellow feathers, and a headband. He wore tights with a black belt and boots as well.

"You know too well who I am, Gonzales. I am RAWK HAWK! That's right, I work for Bowser now." The big bird answered.

Mario groaned in disgust while Link and Sonic just stared as Rawk Hawk flexed his muscles. Bowser finally gave Hawk a good shove that sent the big bird to the ground and went up to the cell.

"Now, you all stay here. If you're gonna give me the treasure you're looking for, I'll let ya go. Until then, you're gonna stay here like good boys." Bowser gloated, his arms folded across his chest.

"THIS is the reward I get for saving your skin from those bloodthirsty dinosaurs on that island?" Link asked in disbelief.

"I thought I told you that was a truce. Truces end, longears. You can stay as long as you like." Bowser said as he walked off.

As the two walked off, Rawk Hawk laughed and said, "HAHAHAHA! As long as you like! HAHAHAHAHA!"

There was a pounding noise as they were walking away and Rawk Hawk said, "OW!" just before Bowser said, "Quiet, big bird."

Link stomped the ground in frustration and even kicked one of the bars. He regretted this since he had a throbbing foot afterward.

"Take it easy, Link. We need to focus on getting out of here. We've also got to find these 'Crystal Stars' before the Dragonoids do." Sonic said, putting his hands up.

"Dragonoids?" Mario asked.

"More on them later, plumber. Do you know where you hid the Crystal Stars?" Link asked impatiently.

"Oh, don't worry. Bowser and Rawk Hawk won't find them in a million years. I hid them in a place they would never look. It's in the-" Mario began, but Sonic put a hand over his mouth.

Sonic seemed to look to the side and spot something. After a little confirmation, a sly grin crossed his face.

"Y'know, it's not too bad in here. It's kinda cozy once you get used to it." Sonic said.

Luigi stood there, dumbfounded and confused at what Sonic was doing.

"When I first came here, I thought I would really hate it. But now that I think about it, I think it's really starting to grow on me." Sonic continued, pointing backward with his thumb.

Luigi then saw that Sonic was pointing at a red thing that looked like a radio transmitter on the wall. Sonic obviously spotted it and Luigi got the idea and decided to play along.

"Yeah! It's not too bad in here. Although it's a little drafty, you do get fresh air and light from the sun." Luigi said, putting up a finger.

Sonic seemed to beckon for Luigi to quiet down a bit and went over to Link. Luigi continued talking, but in a much quieter tone and now he knew what Sonic was up to.

In another, Rawk Hawk was listening in on their conversations on escape, the jail cell, and other stuff I don't want to bore you with. Then, Luigi's voice got real quiet and he began to adjust the machine's settings so he could hear the tall, green Italian.

"Ah, you can try to keep quiet, but that won't work. I gotcha now, Gonzales." Rawk Hawk said, stifling a laugh.

Now, Luigi was talking about the food sticking to his plate but being okay. Sonic went over to Link and whispered into his pointy ear. Link's smile broadened and he nodded as Sonic gave the details.

"You'd think they'd never heard of popcorn, pizza, or even a cheeseburger. However, I wouldn't say no to a nice juicy steak. Wouldn't that be nice?" Luigi whispered.

Link quickly went up to the little transmitter with a sly grin on his face. He then took a deep breath and shouted at the top of his lungs.

"IT SURE WOULD!!!" He yelled into the transmitter.

Back in the room, Rawk Hawk had just finished adjusting to the set and now he could even hear a whisper. Then, he heard someone yell and since he turned up the volume to hear a whisper, the volume was so great that it almost deafened him.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!" Rawk Hawk screamed as he fell to the floor in surprise and pain.

Bowser rushed into the room and picked up the bird by the shoulders. Rawk Hawk got up, looking pretty steamed and ran off.

"Make fun of ME, will they?" He cursed as he stormed off.

Whoever these losers were, he was going to give them one HECK of a pounding.


	28. Chapter 28

**Chapter 28: The Thousand-Year Key**

After Link gave a good shout into the mike and they confirmed that Rawk Hawk was stunned for the moment, Sonic sprang into action. He quickly went over to Mario and began to talk very quickly.

"Mario? Where are the Crystal Stars?" Sonic asked urgently.

"They're at the Thousand-Year Door. However, it's a long ways under our feet…" Mario said as he pointed at the ground.

Sonic got an idea and made an invisible "X" with his finger before taking a step back and crouching down low. Link knew what he was going to do and immediately stepped back a few steps.

"You may want to step back for this." Sonic warned.

Mario and Luigi did so and Sonic leapt into the air. When he was in midair, he turned into the living buzz saw and drilled right into the ground, creating a kind of hole. Link, Mario, and Luigi jumped in after him and they slid down very quickly as though it was a playground slide. When they landed, they saw that they were at a kind of ancient ruin.

"Wow. That was a nice ride to nowhere." Link said, looking around at the dusty place.

"Come on. The Crystal Stars are…" Mario said, gently pulling at his mustache, "THIS way."

Link went first, closely followed by Sonic, Mario, and Luigi. If someone was going to find the Crystal Stars, it was going to be them.

Bowser and Rawk Hawk arrived at the cell to see a large hole in the ground. Bowser growled as he opened the gates and looked at the hole.

"They sure are fast diggers. Let me see…" Bowser said, putting his legs into the hole.

He hadn't even started sliding when he stopped. He was half in the hole and half out. The Koopa King wormed around until he was almost trapped. Then, he realized that he couldn't get down this thing himself.

"BLAST THIS WAIST OF MINE! Rawk Hawk, go back to that room and get the axle grease." Bowser barked, now trying to get out.

Rawk Hawk rushed off for the axle grease and was soon lathering it on his new boss. When Bowser got enough of the stuff, he slid down there like a greased eel and Rawk Hawk went down there as well, but not before lathering himself in axle grease. When they reached the ruins, they took off as fast as they could, determined to catch those dumber plumbers and their dopey friends if it was the last thing they did. However, they didn't know that a few other villains had their eye on the Crystal Stars…

After searching the sewers for almost an hour, Link and friends arrived in a big room with a HUGE door on the far right side. Link stood there, his eyes wide in amazement, as he realized that THIS must be the Thousand-Year Door.

"Uh, about that 'nowhere' comment earlier..." Link said, uneasily.

"No time to explain. I know JUST where the Crystal Stars are. Follow me!" Mario said, racing off.

"Hey! I'll do the speeding around here!" Sonic shouted after him.

After a while of searching, Mario finally came across a bag. He turned it upside down and out came the Crystal Stars. They were stars, but they seemed to be every color of the rainbow and you could see right through them as though they were made of glass. Link marveled at these treasures and was about to touch them when another voice sounded.

"Thank you for finding the stars for me, you four imbeciles."

Everyone whirled around just in time to see a red portal spew out dozens of Dragonoids and one REALLY big white one with two heads. It was none other than White Amphis and he looked about as crazed as ever, though not as insane as his green teammate.

"Lord Ryu took you for dead when he was finished with you in Dreamland. I guess I'll have to do the job for him." Amphis said, his tail's head wavering sideways like a cobra before a snake charmer.

Just then, a crash sounded and Bowser and Rawk Hawk exploded out the door. However, when they saw the Dragonoid before them, their eyes widened until they were at least the size of tennis balls.

"HOLY KOOPA!" They both said, surprised to see a twenty-foot, two-headed dragon.

"Oh, look. More company. Still, it's only six against a whole army. ATTACK!" Amphis shouted, his large finger pointing forward.

The army charged with the force of a buffalo stampede. Luckily, everyone was ready for a fight and charged as well.

Sonic leapt high into the air and kicked a Dragonoid on the back of the head. He then used this one to jump forward and punch one in the jaw. He landed on the ground and sweep kicked another. He also had to jump in order to avoid catching fire, seeing as another Dragonoid had tried to scorch him.

"You gotta be faster than that if you want to hit Sonic the hedgehog, ugly." Sonic said as he raced past and used his spin attack on another Dragonoid soldier that broke its back from the sheer force.

Link easily made his way through most of the Dragonoids. He smashed one in the face with his shield and turned it into a slice with his Master Sword. A Dragonoid head rolled off its owner's shoulders and a pair of Dragonoid legs quickly joined it, because Link ducked down and sliced one just above the knee. Link charged forward, impaled one Dragonoid with his sword, and quickly tugged his sword out to hack another's arm off. This didn't slow the Dragonoid down one bit and he simply wielded a scimitar with its remaining arm. Link simply took care of this one by knocking back its blade with his shield arm and running it through with his own blade.

Luigi and Mario charged in and took out a different weapon for each of them. Mario took out a hammer while Luigi took out a vacuum cleaner. Luigi sucked a Dragonoid up and then got an idea.

"A big, scaly baseball, Mario. Let's see what we can do with that." Luigi said.

Mario held his hammer like a baseball bat and simply commanded, "Serve 'em up!"

Luigi shot the Dragonoid at Mario and the red-clad Italian brought his hammer to meet it. He heard a crunch, the sound of breaking bones, and he sent it rocketing right into White Amphis. White Amphis simply caught it in his tail's mouth and burned it to cinders.

"You're going to wish you hadn't done that, fool." Amphis growled, his yellow eyes narrowing.

Mario fumbled in his pockets as the massive, two-headed behemoth thundered toward him. Then he found something in his pocket and swallowed a large, orange mushroom and White Amphis watched in amazement as Mario grew until he was easily as big as he was.

"Bring it on, four-eyes!" Mario said.

White Amphis did just that with a roar and charged with his mouth agape. Mario barely leapt aside, but had barely landed when the white Dragonoid was there to meet him and planted a kick in the super plumber's stomach. Mario lurched backward, but quickly brought his fist forward and punched White Amphis in the stomach. Amphis stumbled back, but then his second head reached forward and dug its sharp fangs into Mario's hand.

"YEOWCH!" Mario shouted as he tried to shake the snakelike head off his hand.

White Amphis grinned as he used his tail as a kind of fishing rod and drew the giant plumber closer. Mario struggled, but then punched the head in the noggin. It may have hurt a little more, but the second head did let go and Mario used this time to sock Amphis right in the face. Amphis staggered back a few steps, but quickly regained his composure and turned his last stagger into a sweep kick that Mario barely jumped over. White Amphis pulled out of the sweep kick and actually leapt over Mario with surprising agility for his size. Mario didn't even turn around when White Amphis clamped his jaws into Mario's shoulder. Mario yelped in pain and delivered a sharp elbow to Amphis' stomach before seizing the reptile by the neck and heaving him over his shoulder. White Amphis got to his feet and actually smirked.

"You're good, I'll give you that." Amphis said, almost insanely.

In the battleground, Bowser wrapped his large claws around a Dragonoid's head and brought it spinning into several others before throwing it at a stone wall, which killed it on impact. However, several more had leapt on his back and began hammering away at his shell with claws, axes, and swords alike. Bowser growled in frustration as he brought his back smashing into the wall, impaling several of them on impact. He was about to punch another one when one of the Dragonoids dug its sharp teeth into his bicep muscle. Bowser howled in pain, but ripped his arm free, spun the dragonoid around and bit down on its neck, killing it. Another one had just reared up when Rawk Hawk seized it, put it in a headlock, and hurled it at another that tried a frontal attack.

"HAHAHA! You're going to get RAWKED, lizards!" The wrestling bird said, proudly.

Suddenly, a Dragonoid got in Rawk Hawk's face and brought them both wrestling to the ground. The fighting ceased when Bowser wrapped his claws around the Dragonoid's neck and peeled it off the bird before spinning it like a discus and throwing it away.

"Next time, don't get cocky!" Bowser growled before he thundered off with a really big Dragonoid after him.

Mario and White Amphis charged like bulls at each other, both determined to see their opponent go down. They collided with the force of a herd of wildebeests and the blows they exchanged seemed to make the earth itself shake. White Amphis dug his teeth into Mario's shoulder and his claws into his chest. Mario growled as he seized the white Dragonoid by the back of the head and peeled him off. However, White Amphis' second head breathed fire at the large super-plumber and burned his hat off as well as most of the hairs on his head. Mario ducked from another fire blast just when White Amphis opened his real mouth and his second head's. Mario quickly moved away just when both blasts erupted from their owner's mouth. Mario knew that he had to take care of the head on Amphis' tail if he were to stand a chance. He produced a massive hammer and brought it smashing down onto the second head, which had tried to strike like a cobra. The hammer easily crushed the skull of the head and the tail twitched at the sudden loss of its brain. White Amphis roared in pain as he lost most of his brain and blindly delivered a sharp punch to Mario's nose. The super plumber fell onto his back, crushing most of the Dragonoid army, and shrank back to his original size. White Amphis looked at the head on his tail, which was now lifeless and had a large, bloody circle over most of its face.

"Pathetic life forms!" The white dragon cursed, "I'll make sure you die a VERY PAINFUL death!"

While everyone was fighting, they failed to notice that a red portal was slowly opening up and that it was getting bigger by the minute. For the moment, it was almost unnoticeable, but who knew what would happen when it reached its full content…

Back in the arena, White Amphis was causing major trouble for them. He was bigger than Bowser and Rawk Hawk combined and he easily made his way through his own army. Link saw this and fired a Light Arrow right into Amphis' face. It struck him right in between the eyes and he did clutch the spot. However, he pulled it out with his fingers and he didn't appear too badly harmed. Sonic just didn't get what it took to injure these guys and then he spotted Link's Light Arrows.

"Link! I'm going to jump. And when I do, I want you to shoot a Light Arrow at me. Do you understand?" Sonic shouted amongst the Dragonoid soldiers.

"Yeah!" Link said, nodding.

Sonic started running at White Amphis just when Link cocked his bow. White Amphis saw the blue mammal rushing at him and snorted, sending a small puff of smoke through his nostrils.

"Bring it on, rodent!" White Amphis said, gesturing for him to bring it on.

Then, in almost a fraction of a second, it happened. Sonic leapt into the air and Link fired. The Light Arrow whistled through the air and struck just when Sonic began to spin like a buzz saw. The originally blue blade turned golden yellow and White Amphis' eyes widened as the attack raced at him. Sonic, empowered by the Light Arrow, struck White Amphis in the shoulder and the White Dragonoid screamed as Sonic hit him, tore through his flesh, and went right out the other side, leaving a gaping hole in Amphis' right shoulder.

"That-that was impossible!" Amphis said, kneeling and clutching his wound.

Amphis tried to move, but it was like his feet had lead weights strapped to them and black blood started to pour out of his wound. Link saw what the attack did to him and raced up to the fallen general, seizing his chance. Amphis' eyes darted upward just in time to see Link leap high into the air, land right on his nose, and dig his glowing Master Sword into his forehead. It pierced right through the skull and went straight into the braincase. White Amphis howled in pain as he rocked back and forth and finally, in a low moan of defeat, he fell to the ground with a CRASH.

Mario got up and saw the body of White Amphis lying on the ground and Link pull his blade out of the monster's forehead. He scratched his head in confusion.

"Did I miss something?" He asked.

"Yeah. You missed the killing of a Dragonoid general." Link pointed out.

"Ah, I never liked those guys anyway. They made Rawk Hawk look like a roast turkey." Bowser said, picking up a half-burned Rawk Hawk.

"Ow" was all the muscular bird could say.

Sonic shook black gunk off him and got a good look at the dead general that Link was standing on. He dusted off his hands and closed his eyes in pride.

"I can see the look on Ryu's stupid face!" Sonic said, proudly.

"Oh, really?" A low voice asked.

Everyone turned on heel to see Ryu with all the Crystal Stars circling around him. Remember that portal that opened up? He came out of it and now he had what he wanted. Then, the stars began to swirl faster and faster as well as rise just over Ryu's head. Then they started to get closer and closer. Finally, when they did combine, they formed a bright light and when it cleared, Ryu was holding one large star that was all the colors of the rainbow. Ryu was looking at this new thing like it was a priceless treasure, which it was.

"Behold; The Rainbow Star. The key item to the Mushroom Kingdom. So I lost one general: that's only a minor loss for the Dragonoids. There's no time for games. FAREWELL." Ryu said as he clenched it in his hand.

The Dragonoid King turned heel and waltzed into the portal, quickly followed by his troops.

Sonic pounded the ground with his fist when he realized that they had all been suckered and said, "SHOOT! He had a plan all this time and we didn't even know it!"

"No wonder we're losing the war for the dimensions…They're getting smarter." Link said in a tone that was a combination of amazement and anger.

"AAAAAAH! HOW COME THESE GUYS HAVE TO RUIN EVERYTHING?! THAT TREASURE WAS MINE!" Bowser shouted at the top of his lungs, clutching his head as he did. 

"Maybe you should try blaming it on the blue dude and the elf…" Rawk Hawk began, but then he realized that only Mario and Luigi were listening.

Link and Sonic were gone without a trace and the quizzical looks on the Mario brothers' faces showed that they were just as confused as he was.

"Ah, shoot!" Rawk Hawk cursed.


	29. Chapter 29

**Chapter 29: Chaos in Mushroom Kingdom**

Vector landed his ship in the Mushroom Kingdom and departed quickly. He ran as fast as he could and Espio and Charmy had to go as fast as they could to catch up with him.

"C'MON, GUYS! WE GOT A HEDGEHOG AND A HYLIAN TO FIND!" Vector shouted as he ran off.

"I think…Vector…is starting…to get smarter…for once." Espio panted.

"You…said it…Espio." Charmy also panted.

Vector and his crew ran so fast, they would've made Sonic proud and Vector trampled a Koopa Troopa while he was running. However, he paid no attention to him as he came across a shanty-looking place with a wooden sign that read "Welcome to Rogueport".

"Well, this isn't my idea of a vacation. Let's check the place out, boys." Vector said, as though he was a military general.

"You only said that because you've already checked everywhere." Espio commented.

"I don't care. We gotta find Link and Sonic before those lousy lizards get their grubby little hands on the last two key items." Vector quipped, grabbing Espio and Charmy by the arm and dragging them in.

Rogueport wasn't exactly the best place to be, but what choice did they have? Vector then got the crazy idea to open doors and ask if Link or Sonic was in there. Vector checked a market; no luck. Espio and Charmy opened the door to a room in an inn.

"Hey, Link! You in here?" Charmy called.

"Ah, this room's empty too." Espio said, closing the door.

Outside, Vector came across a burly Koopa Troopa and a fat, Mario-esque character with a yellow shirt and hat and purple trousers. He went up to these guys, wondering about how they'd respond.

"Pardon me, guys, but have any of you seen a green-clad elf thing and a blue hedgehog?" Vector asked.

The Koopa opened his mouth, but Wario beat him to Vector and said, "Why, no. I haven't."

"HEY! He was talking to ME!" The Koopa yelled.

"NO, he was talking to ME!" Wario said, turning on him.

They then began to box like Rock'em Sock'em Robots until Wario delivered an uppercut. The Koopa's neck elongated and the bell sounded for victory just like in those toy games.

"Wow. Rock'em Sock'em Turtles. I never thought I'd see the day…" Vector said as he backed away slowly.

After searching the whole town, Vector went up to one last person. It was none other than Bowser, but since he had never been here, he didn't know this guy was pure B-A-D.

"Excuse me, sir? We're looking for two people. Can you give us a hand?" Vector asked.

Bowser turned and said, "Sure. Why don't we talk it out at that bar over there?"

All three members of the Chaotix crew's eyes moved left and right uneasily until they all reached a decision.

"Uh…sure." They all said in unison.

The bar wasn't too bad, just a few tables and a Bob-omb serving the drinks. Bowser went up, ordered something, and a minute later, Bowser was holding a mug of some bubbling red liquid. It looked somewhat…toxic and Vector tried to guess what had barfed in there to make the drink.

"Koopa Beer: nectar of the turtles. Guaranteed to make you feel warm-blooded." Bowser said, offering it to Vector.

Vector's eyes shifted for a while. Then he gave a whistle and Espio and Charmy were there to meet him.

"Hey, guys, why don't you try this stuff?" Vector said, offering the red stuff to them.

"Sure." Charmy said, taking the stuff and chugging down half of it.

"Whatever, Vector." Espio said, gulping down the rest of it.

Nothing appeared to happen and Vector decided that it was safe to drink. He then began to pound the table in frustration.

"Hey, bartender! Where's mine?!" Vector shouted.

In just a few seconds, the bartender gave Vector some Koopa Beer and Vector chugged the whole thing down. For a while, nothing happened and Vector scratched his chin. Then he froze. After a few minutes, he put his hands on the sides of his face as his pupils widened, making him look like he was using a "puppy dog face". Then, all three members of the Chaotix crew were in the same position as Vector and they began to speak in higher versions of their own voices.

"The eensy-weensy spiduh went up the watuh thpout!" Vector sang in a very childish voice.

"Down came the wain and washed the spiduh out!" Espio continued.

"Up came the thun and dwied up all the wain!" Charmy finished.

The Chaotix crew then started to run around in circles really quickly, their eyes about as multicolored as the rainbow before they clunked heads and fell to the floor. Luckily, they were out of the Koopa Beer side effects. Vector's orange eyes locked onto Bowser and he only said three words.

"I hate you." Vector said, enviously.

Just then, Mario and Luigi burst in and saw the Chaotix on the ground with Bowser laughing his lungs out. They stormed in and helped the three to their feet before Mario slapped Bowser across the face.

"Bowser, don't tell me you were giving people Koopa Beer again." Mario scolded.

"I'm sorry…hahaha…It's just TOO FUN! HAHAHAHA!" Bowser said between laughs.

Mario and Luigi then proceeded to drag them out of the bar and helped them to their feet. Luigi stared in confusion, but Mario recognized them instantly.

"Vector? Espio? Charmy? What the heck are you doing here?" Mario asked, confused.

"You know these guys?" Luigi asked.

"Of course he does, greenie! We met when he went to another dimension with us." Vector filled him in.

"I gotta admit this place has some cool kiddie rides!" Charmy said, on top of something.

"Charmy, that's not a ride!" Espio said.

Charmy was riding on a Yoshi like a horse. Then, the green dinosaur got tired of the bee on him and turned to face him.

"Will you get off me?!" The Yoshi asked impatiently.

Charmy hopped off, looking a little bummed. Espio simply decided that the time to find Link and Sonic was now.

"By the way, Mario, have you seen Sonic or Link anywhere?" He asked.

"Oh, you mean those two guys we ran into at the castle courtyard. They just left after killing something called a Dragonoid." Luigi answered.

"THE DRAGONOIDS WERE HERE, TOO?!" Vector asked in surprise.

"Yes. We even killed it and took pictures, too." Mario answered, holding up a picture of the dead White Amphis.

"YOU KILLED A GENERAL?!" Espio asked, holding the picture up to his face.

"Yeah. Until a big black one took away the Crystal Stars. He said it was our 'key item' or something like that." Mario added.

Vector stood there, his mouth agape and his eyes as wide as dinner plates. For a few awkward moments, Vector just stood there until he broke the silence very suddenly.

"SORRY! GOTTA GO NOW!" Vector said, taking Espio and Charmy by the arms and racing back to their ship.

Along the way, they ran across Princess Peach and Vector stopped. He then spoke for the first and last time during this sprint.

"Nice outfit." Vector said before racing off.

Peach just stood there, wanting to punch that crocodile thing. However, she hadn't even moved when Vector already disappeared.

_**Next world, we find out what these creatures are REALLY up to! Stay tuned!**_


	30. Chapter 30

**Chapter 30: The pieces come together…**

Link and Sonic stopped their running to arrive in front of a blue house with a black roof. Link almost looked around for familiar signs, but the answer came when he came face-to-face with a bear with shorts and a backpack. The bear looked like he had just seen a ghost.

"Link?" The bear asked.

"Oh, hey, Banjo." Link said, shaking the stunned bear's hand.

"Uh, Link? Where the heck are we?" Sonic asked, desperately wanting attention.

Link was about to answer when something appeared in the sky. It was a kind of portal and Link had far too many experiences with portals in the sky.

"Everyone inside!" Link said, seizing Banjo by the hand with Sonic and the bird close behind.

When they were inside, Link said, very quickly, "Sonic, this is Banjo the bear and Kazooie the bird."

"Oh, thanks for the introduction, earring boy. Whatcha shove us in here for?" Kazooie asked in her usual loud-mouthed fashion.

"There are creatures after us: the Dragonoids. These creatures are VERY dangerous, seeing as they wiped out many things that took me hours to beat." Link explained.

Banjo's eyes widened and Kazooie's got even wider. They stayed as low as they could get and then something struck Sonic.

"Hey, I've got an idea. Listen…" Sonic said before whispering into Link's ear.

Vector and his crew landed their ship in a clearing near a spiral-shaped mountain. They had definitely seen Link and Sonic in this world and had seen them run off somewhere.

"You sure this is where they are, Vector?" Espio asked.

"I'm as positive as an atom. Of course they're here!" Vector answered, his chest puffed out.

"Are you SURE this isn't one of your little 'get-beat-up-quick' plans?" Charmy asked, one eyebrow cocked.

"This is NOT one of those plans. Now I'll go out, find Link and Sonic, and I'll tell them the news." Vector said as he made for the exit.

Vector went up to the door and opened it. However, it was as dark as a cave and he couldn't see a thing. It was also so quiet that he could hear a leaf crunch in it.

"Wow. Sure is dark in here. Is anyone in here?" Vector said.

He barely had time to react when several pairs of hands seized him and drug him in. You couldn't see what was happening in there, but it did involve Vector getting the snot pounded out of him.

A few minutes later, Espio and Charmy were waiting for Vector to return. They heard the doors open and saw a clobbered Vector fall onto the ground.

"Vector! Are you alright?!" Espio asked urgently.

"No. They pounded me into next year for some odd, unknown, mysterious reason. I don't think I've been so humiliated in all my life." Vector answered.

"Sure you have, Vector. What about the time the principal called you an idiot over the PA system?" Espio asked.

"Or the time you thought Link and the others were holding Fox and Sonic captive?" Charmy added.

"Or the time you wrote fake love letters because you thought Link was in love with Malon?" Espio asked.

"Or the time you wrecked Link and Fox's spaceship because you thought it was Eggman's?" Charmy asked.

"Or…" Espio began, but Vector cut him off.

"OKAY! OKAY! I exaggerated!" Vector shouted.

"Vector, you better leave this to a master of stealth…like me." Espio said.

Espio took a ninja-like stance and then turned invisible in a flash of rainbow-colored light. He walked out the door and it seemed to open without an apparent reason.

"This oughta be easy…" Espio said as he walked up to the house.

"Man! These guys sure can wreck the place. I need to paint over everything." Kazooie complained as she painted the walls.

Just then, something seemed to walk through the door and she accidentally fell over, causing her brush to fall on something and paint something invisible. Kazooie's confused look spread across her face as she painted a little more of this thing. Then, an invisible eyelid opened up with paint still on it. Link walked into the room and then his eyes widened. It was actually Espio.

"INVISIBLE DRAGONOID! GET HIM!" Link roared as he teamed up with Sonic and Banjo to attack it.

A few minutes later, Espio returned, still invisible and turned back in front of everyone, paint still on his face. Espio had quite a few bruises and an X-shaped bandage on his forehead.

"It's times like this I wish I could disappear." Espio said, ashamed of himself.

"Don't worry, guys. I'll find a sure-fire way to negotiate with these guys." Charmy said as he buzzed off to get something.

He came back with all kinds of pots and pans as well as some kind of felt-like substance. The smile he bore almost split his cheeks and he was sure this plan would work.

"I'll use a disguise to show that I'm not an enemy. Wish me luck!" Charmy said as he flew out the door.

For a few minutes, Vector and Espio stayed in their ship playing video games. Espio was on a winning streak when Vector asked something.

"Espio? What was that disguise that Charmy was talking about?"

Espio shrugged and answered, "A dinosaur suit I think…"

For one second, there was silence and even the game froze. Then, both Vector's and Espio's eyes widened as they realized the error of that disguise.

"OH NO!" They both shouted.

Link and Sonic were helping clean up the house after they had attacked the "invisible Dragonoid". They were about halfway done when something walked through the door. It was supposed to be Charmy, but he was wearing a dinosaur suit and a few pots and pans for armor.

(We regret that this scene is too violent for young readers. But it does involve Charmy getting the crud beat out of him.)

Charmy went back in, his armor dented and his costume torn up like a piece of paper. He had looked like he had stepped on a land mine.

"Okay…Disguise: bad." Charmy said before collapsing.

"If none of that worked, I guess there's only one thing that will." Vector said, sighing.

"You better got it, because every time you got it, I get it." Espio said, shaking his head.

Link, Sonic, Banjo, and Kazooie were about done with their stuff when something tapped on the window. Link went over to it and then saw something that made him feel a little ashamed of what he did before.

"Uhh…Sonic?" Link asked, uneasily.

"What?" Sonic asked, walking over to Link.

"I think we beat up the wrong 'Dragonoids'. Look." Link said, pointing outside.

Outside were three very beat-up Chaotix crewmembers with Vector waving a white flag and Charmy was holding up a sign that read "We come in piece". (He's only six, you know, a bad speller.)

"Hey, Link, did we beat up THOSE guys?" Banjo asked nervously.

"I think so." Link admitted.

Kazooie poked her head outside and got a good look at these three. Then she noticed that these three bore resemblance to someone…

"C'mon, Three Stooges. You can come in, bozos." Kazooie called, beckoning them in.

The Chaotix crew walked in, but then Vector asked, "Did she say 'Three Stooges' and 'Bozos'? I'm going to pluck her for this!"

"Save your breath, Vector. What are you doing here?" Link asked, shrugging.

"We've been travelling the dimensions, trying to find you. However, finding you was the hard part, seeing as you kept moving!" Vector shouted.

Espio decided to get back on subject and said, "What he's saying is 'We have information for you'!"


	31. Chapter 31

**Chapter 31: What's REALLY happening…**

Link, Sonic, Banjo, and Kazooie sat around the table with the Chaotix Crew at the head of it. For once, the Chaotix crew had finally found them and they had some good dirt to dig up.

"So, what did you find out, Vector?" Link asked.

"Yeah. What's with these Dragonoids?" Sonic asked with equal curiosity.

"We just found this out. Sonic, do you remember when they found another comet similar to the Black Comet that was destroyed a month ago?" Vector asked.

Sonic nodded.

"Well, scientists found traces of it and traced it to the Black Arm homeworld. However, they launched another comet just when they left. A few weeks later, astronauts arrived on their homeworld, but the whole planet was barren with the exception of odd skeletons and traces of carbonization." Vector told them.

"What was THAT?" Banjo asked, scratching his head.

"It means that all life on the planet was BURNED to ash! At the same time, the comet, which was calculated to be in the sky, disappeared! Tails found a portion of rock from the comet and found it was also burned. Tails has reason to believe that the Dragonoids did this!"

Link was utterly amazed at this. Sonic told him all about the Black Arms and how dangerous they were, but the Dragonoids made them look like jokes.

"And that's not the worst of it. The Dragonoids are collecting the key items for a good reason. Once they have all ten, they will create a black hole." Espio said suspensefully.

"A black hole?" Link asked, having never heard the word before.

"A black hole is a vortex in space so dense, not even light will penetrate it. Its gravity will suck us in and we'll all be CRUSHED." Sonic filled him in.

Link's eyes widened. Ryu could do that with just ten items?

"Anyway, when the planets get sucked into that vortex, he'll reverse it and spew us back out. However, all of our worlds will be made in his own image! He'll merge the dimensions and DESTROY US ALL!" Vector finished, "Right Charmy?"

Charmy didn't answer and Vector looked around to find that his bee buddy was gone.

Suddenly, Charmy arrived looking pretty eager and eerily confident.

"Hey, Vector! I just beat your high score on 'Planet Destroyer'! Oh, and the Dragonoids are here." The energetic bee told them.

"WHAT?!" Kazooie asked in pure surprise.

"Yeah. I saw a big black one fly overhead with some kind of jewel shaped like a puzzle piece…" Charmy told her.

"They took the Crystal Jiggy?!" Banjo asked, putting his hands on the sides of his face.

"OH NO! That must've been the key item! We tracked you down too late!" Vector screamed.

"Take it easy, Vector. Sonic and I will go to that animal world and fetch the last one so the ritual can't be completed." Link said, trying to encourage his klutzy friend.

"Well, that's the BAD news. You see, we went there and found a kind of tablet and they stole it. My best guess is THAT was the key item." Vector said, sheepishly.

"WHAT?!" Link asked in disbelief.

"OH NO! IT'S THE END OF THE UNIVERSE AS WE KNOW IT!!!" Kazooie screamed.

Universes away, Ryu sat on his chair with the tenth and final key item he needed. The Triforce, The Master Emerald, The Krazoa Sword, The Rainbow Star, The Platinum Banana, The Power Stone, The Star Rod, The Ancient Tablet, and The Crystal Jiggy: They were all his. NOW he could put his plan into action.

"Wyvern! Firedrake! Salamander! Drache!" The Dragonoid King barked.

Within minutes, all four of his generals were present and bowed to their knees.

"The time for the ritual is NOW! Get everything ready!" Ryu informed them.

"Yes, Lord Ryu!" All four generals responded.

All five Dragonoids took the key items, two in each hand, and belched dark fire onto them. Their ritual was ready to begin now and no one would be able to stop them.

Universes away, on Banjo and Kazooie's world, the whole planet seemed to shake and a portal opened up as thousands of Dragonoids began to fly out of it like malevolent lizardlike bats. Link and Sonic looked up to see the whole thing happen, but then something else caught their attention. As they looked to the right, they saw a planet that was so close, it was the size of the moon and there was another planet to the far left and was equal in size. Then, they saw something that made Sonic shake slightly. There, far to the front was a small black dot. But when Link looked closely, they saw it was slowly, but surely getting bigger. For the moment, it looked no bigger than the head of a pin in the sky, but it was getting bigger for sure if you looked close enough.

"There's no time to hesitate! We've got to get out of here!" Sonic said.

"For once, I have to agree with you, Sonic." Link said, nodding.

"You guys better get going. We'll catch up!" Vector called.

The minute Sonic and Link raced off through the dimensions, Vector and his crew ran right into their ship and activated the warp vortex. The final battle was soon to begin.

_OH NO! ARMAGEDDON IS HERE!_


	32. Chapter 32

**Chapter 31: What's REALLY happening…**

Link, Sonic, Banjo, and Kazooie sat around the table with the Chaotix Crew at the head of it. For once, the Chaotix crew had finally found them and they had some good dirt to dig up.

"So, what did you find out, Vector?" Link asked.

"Yeah. What's with these Dragonoids?" Sonic asked with equal curiosity.

"We just found this out. Sonic, do you remember when they found another comet similar to the Black Comet that was destroyed a month ago?" Vector asked.

Sonic nodded.

"Well, scientists found traces of it and traced it to the Black Arm homeworld. However, they launched another comet just when they left. A few weeks later, astronauts arrived on their homeworld, but the whole planet was barren with the exception of odd skeletons and traces of carbonization." Vector told them.

"What was THAT?" Banjo asked, scratching his head.

"It means that all life on the planet was BURNED to ash! At the same time, the comet, which was calculated to be in the sky, disappeared! Tails found a portion of rock from the comet and found it was also burned. Tails has reason to believe that the Dragonoids did this!"

Link was utterly amazed at this. Sonic told him all about the Black Arms and how dangerous they were, but the Dragonoids made them look like jokes.

"And that's not the worst of it. The Dragonoids are collecting the key items for a good reason. Once they have all ten, they will create a black hole." Espio said suspensefully.

"A black hole?" Link asked, having never heard the word before.

"A black hole is a vortex in space so dense, not even light will penetrate it. Its gravity will suck us in and we'll all be CRUSHED." Sonic filled him in.

Link's eyes widened. Ryu could do that with just ten items?

"Anyway, when the planets get sucked into that vortex, he'll reverse it and spew us back out. However, all of our worlds will be made in his own image! He'll merge the dimensions and DESTROY US ALL!" Vector finished, "Right Charmy?"

Charmy didn't answer and Vector looked around to find that his bee buddy was gone.

Suddenly, Charmy arrived looking pretty eager and eerily confident.

"Hey, Vector! I just beat your high score on 'Planet Destroyer'! Oh, and the Dragonoids are here." The energetic bee told them.

"WHAT?!" Kazooie asked in pure surprise.

"Yeah. I saw a big black one fly overhead with some kind of jewel shaped like a puzzle piece…" Charmy told her.

"They took the Crystal Jiggy?!" Banjo asked, putting his hands on the sides of his face.

"OH NO! That must've been the key item! We tracked you down too late!" Vector screamed.

"Take it easy, Vector. Sonic and I will go to that animal world and fetch the last one so the ritual can't be completed." Link said, trying to encourage his klutzy friend.

"Well, that's the BAD news. You see, we went there and found a kind of tablet and they stole it. My best guess is THAT was the key item." Vector said, sheepishly.

"WHAT?!" Link asked in disbelief.

"OH NO! IT'S THE END OF THE UNIVERSE AS WE KNOW IT!!!" Kazooie screamed.

Universes away, Ryu sat on his chair with the tenth and final key item he needed. The Triforce, The Master Emerald, The Krazoa Sword, The Rainbow Star, The Platinum Banana, The Power Stone, The Star Rod, The Ancient Tablet, and The Crystal Jiggy: They were all his. NOW he could put his plan into action.

"Wyvern! Firedrake! Salamander! Drache!" The Dragonoid King barked.

Within minutes, all four of his generals were present and bowed to their knees.

"The time for the ritual is NOW! Get everything ready!" Ryu informed them.

"Yes, Lord Ryu!" All four generals responded.

All five Dragonoids took the key items, two in each hand, and belched dark fire onto them. Their ritual was ready to begin now and no one would be able to stop them.

Universes away, on Banjo and Kazooie's world, the whole planet seemed to shake and a portal opened up as thousands of Dragonoids began to fly out of it like malevolent lizardlike bats. Link and Sonic looked up to see the whole thing happen, but then something else caught their attention. As they looked to the right, they saw a planet that was so close, it was the size of the moon and there was another planet to the far left and was equal in size. Then, they saw something that made Sonic shake slightly. There, far to the front was a small black dot. But when Link looked closely, they saw it was slowly, but surely getting bigger. For the moment, it looked no bigger than the head of a pin in the sky, but it was getting bigger for sure if you looked close enough.

"There's no time to hesitate! We've got to get out of here!" Sonic said.

"For once, I have to agree with you, Sonic." Link said, nodding.

"You guys better get going. We'll catch up!" Vector called.

The minute Sonic and Link raced off through the dimensions, Vector and his crew ran right into their ship and activated the warp vortex. The final battle was soon to begin.

_OH NO! ARMAGEDDON IS HERE!_


	33. Chapter 33

**Chapter 32: Invasion**

This is the beginning of the Dragonoid Invasion. If you tried to measure it on a scale, it would make World War II look like a birthday party. If you tried to count them, you'd be dead before you finished counting. THIS is what it was like in the worlds of the others.

Sonic's World:

Knuckles the Echidna was standing at a place that used to hold the Master Emerald. He thought for a while, then he growled and punched the ground as hard as he could. He almost cracked the ground and almost cracked his fist. However, a great red portal opened up a few miles away and it was large enough to catch the red echidna's attention.

"Huh? What the HECK is THAT?!" Knuckles asked to no one in particular.

Then, he saw what was going on. Out of the portal came hundreds, even thousands, of one species of creature: Dragonoids. Some spread batlike wings and took to the wing, burning everything they could find, while some floated to the ground and started smashing stuff from houses to cars. Knuckles took it as a threat and rushed off to take part in the battle.

Jet the Hawk was gliding through the buildings on his Extreme Gear when something big and scaly landed in front of him. Jet's eyes widened as he made a VERY uneasy turn and swerved around it. Jet took notice of its physical shape and recognized it as a Dragonoid, especially after his incident with Red Wyvern.

"Oh great! Not these guys again!" Jet said in disbelief.

The Dragonoid snarled at the boarding bird and quickly gave chase. Jet had barely gone a few feet when another Dragonoid landed in front of him and kicked his gear into scrap metal. Jet flew through the air and was about to get turned into a Thanksgiving turkey when someone shot over him and brought his fist smashing into the Dragonoid's jaw with a CRUNCH that sounded like breaking bones. Jet looked up to see Knuckles finish the first one and quickly turn to start on the second one. When Knuckles smashed this one, he turned to Jet.

"And they call you the 'Wind Master'. Yeah right." Knuckles said, heaving Jet to his feet.

"Uh, thanks. I'm not used to being rescued by my rivals." Jet said, sheepishly.

"Yeah, yeah. Talk later, bird-boy. There are still quite a few Dragonoids left to…" Knuckles began, but a Dragonoid reared up and snarled at them.

Knuckles was about to punch this lizard to the moon when someone blasted it with a missile. Jet looked up to see the all-too-familiar mustache and red coat of Dr. Eggman.

"Well, Knucklehead, I didn't expect you would need MY help." Eggman said after a good laugh.

"Forget the insults, will ya? Those Dragonoids are still out there and we need to crush them!" Knuckles growled.

"Dragonoids? Do you mean those ugly reptiles that destroyed my headquarters?" Eggman asked as he pulled his mustache slightly.

"Well, at least SOME good came out of it." Jet taunted, eyeing Eggman maliciously.

"Shut your beak for once, Jet, or I'll pluck you VERY PAINFULLY!" Eggman threatened.

Dr. Eggman took off, but not before Jet grabbed a hold of his ship and held on while Knuckles took off at high speed and followed.

DK Isle:

Donkey Kong didn't know what was going on and put his mighty muscles to work, pounding the Dragonoids like a hammer with nails. Behind him was none other than King K. Rool, using his massive weight to handle any enemy that came his way.

"MAN! This is worse than your Kremlings getting turned into these guys! Wouldn't you say?" DK said over the scuffle.

"DON'T REMIND ME!" K. Rool growled as he flattened another Dragonoid.

DK was about to smash another one with his fist when he disappeared in a purple portal, leaving the Dragonoid to bite thin air. King K. Rool finished off a few more, then he looked around and sighed.

"Just like Donkey Kong. He wants me to fight alone." K. Rool said, continuing to fight.

Dreamland:

King Dedede and Escargoon were running as though there was no tomorrow (Which there probably wouldn't be), because right behind them were several, ugly Dragonoids. Then, Dedede turned around and produced a large hammer. He turned around and smashed one in the face while Escargoon cowered behind him. When Dedede finished two more, Escargoon peeked out.

"Nice blow, sire." The ugly snail guy called.

However, another Dragonoid swung a fist and caught the sizeable king in the midsection. Dedede fell backward, landing on Escargoon and squashing him flat. The large Dragonoid towered over both of them and got ready to take another swing. However, with almost lightning speed, a sword came from nowhere and sliced the ugly reptile into pieces. It was none other than Metaknight with his sword out and his batlike wings spread out.

"Sorry for the delay, Dedede. I would have gotten Kirby, but he seems to have vanished off the face of Pop Star." Metaknight apologized.

"WHAT?!" Escargoon exclaimed.

"Where could that pink pile o' gum go to that's so important?" Dedede asked, rhetorically.

Mushroom Kingdom:

Mario and Luigi teamed up with Bowser and Rawk Hawk to pound a group of Dragonoids into the ground. Mario leapt into the air to stomp one and nearly crush its skull while Luigi caught one across the face with his fist and gave it a bruise to remember. Bowser wrapped his claws around one's sizeable head and spun it like a discus before throwing it and smashing its head through solid brick. He then turned around to torch another one, but it was actually Rawk Hawk.

"YEOWCH!! Watch who you're burnin', you big oaf!" Rawk Hawk said, pointing his finger at Bowser.

"Sorry, Big Bird." Bowser said sarcastically.

Another Dragonoid tackled Rawk Hawk to the ground and the two rolled around, exchanging blows that could even be heard miles away. Finally, Rawk Hawk delivered a punch to its visage, rolled him off and gave him a body blow that sent the ugly reptile skidding away.

"I'd say these guys are quite full of themselves. Aren't they, Gonzales?" Rawk Hawk asked.

When no response came, Rawk Hawk, Bowser, and Luigi looked around. Mario was gone.

"GAAAAAAAHH!! JUST WHEN THINGS ARE GETTING INTENSE, THE DOPEY PLUMBER CHOOSES TO HIDE!!" Bowser roared in anger.

"Uhh, Bowser? Mario was right behind me and he suddenly vanished. Who do you think he is? Sonic the hedgehog?" Luigi asked.

"Yes. I DO think he's that wimpy blue dude!" Bowser growled as he grappled with another Dragonoid.

The Kanto Region:

Raphael had just walked out of the Poke'mon Center with Mewtwo when he saw six or seven Dragonoids just ten feet in front of them. Pikachu's eyes widened until you could have set them on dinner plates and Mewtwo's eyes narrowed in pure rage.

"Oh, GREAT! It's the Dragonoids again!" Raph said as he took a Poke'ball from his belt.

"I thought we saw the last of those hideous iguanas when they took the Power Stone!" Pikachu panicked.

"Apparently not." Mewtwo growled via telepathy.

"Well, if it's a fight they want, it's a fight they're gonna get!" Raphael said as he threw five Poke'balls.

When the balls opened up, five Poke'mon came out: Gengar, Onix, Scizor, Gyarados, and Feraligatr. However, he had barely said a word when the thing on his shoulder vanished without a trace as well as Mewtwo.

"OH GREAT!" Raphael cursed.

Throughout the universe, the same thing happened. Dragonoids were invading all the worlds they stole key items from at an almost phenomenal rate. For several, it seemed like all hope was lost. However, the people who disappeared were the ones who had been to Hyrule. And there was one small speck of hope and four would save the universe.


	34. Chapter 34

**Chapter 33: On the brink**

Link, Sonic, and The Chaotix Crew were speeding through the dimensions like there was a hungry Dragonoid behind them. However, the reason they were at such speed was just as good. If they didn't arrive in time, there would be NO universe left for them to live in.

When they arrived, the sky seemed to be raining fire as Dragonoids of every size and shape flew around like a flock of bats or thundered across the ground like a herd of wildebeests. Link and Sonic's jaws dropped and so did the Chaotix's. Then, just when one was flying low to the ground and coming right at them, something shot it right out of the sky. Link looked behind the attacking reptile to see Fox with a smoking blaster out.

"Fox, where's Zelda?" Link asked over the sound of roaring flames and Dragonoids.

"Don't worry, she's at the castle and well-protected. However, with all these Dragonoids flying around, who knows how long she and Krystal will be safe?" Fox said as he shot another one down.

Link thought for a while and then got an idea. Thanks to the shoes on his feet, he sped off to the forest and through the door of his house. There, he saw the orb that once belonged to his old enemy Concolor. He concentrated with all his mind as the orb began to glow like a firefly. When he focused, a kind of portal opened up and several people arrived.

In the air, Falco had just taken an Arwing and was in a dogfight with a Dragonoid. He shot it down like a hunter with a duck, but there was another surprise waiting for him. Falco looked behind him and swerved to his right just in time to avoid a blast of fire from three very large Dragonoids.

"Man! This can't be happening!" Falco cursed as he continued to try and outmaneuver the monsters.

However, before he could meet a flaming death, something shot down all three enemies. Falco turned around to see three Wolfens flying right behind him.

"Don't get too cocky, Lombardi." The voice of Wolf O'Donnell said.

"Hey, it's nice to know you guys are workin' for us again." Falco thanked.

"Don't get too comfortable, bird." Leon hissed.

"Yes. We're only doing this for the universe. And no universe means no partners in life for Panther Caroso." The suave Panther said.

"Great. Why'd you bring THAT guy?" Falco asked.

"Enough talking. Let's take care of these things!" Wolf said, dispersing the flight group in an attack pattern to take out many Dragonoids.

Link sped back to Sonic and Fox as fast as his new shoes would carry him. However, Fox and Sonic were NOT alone. Shadow had arrived as well as Slippy Toad. That wasn't all. Pikachu, Mewtwo, Donkey Kong, Mario, Samus, and everyone else who visited Hyrule was there; even Ridley, who had recovered from his battle with the Dragonoid Generals.

"Hey, everyone. It's good to see you all made it." Link greeted, shaking everyone's hand, except Ridley's.

"What is the point of dragging us back here, organic slime?" Ridley asked, impatiently as he flexed his mechanical fingers.

"I need your help to protect Hyrule." Link answered.

"Protect? If the invasion is at this rate, your land will be nothing more than a smoldering pile of rock." Mewtwo told him.

"You will. I'm going to find Ryu alone." Link said as he prepared to speed off.

"No, Link. You're going to need my help. There's no way I'm going to allow you to face that demon alone." Sonic told him.

"You can count me in, too." Fox said, stepping up to Link.

"Fox…Sonic…" Link said, but that wasn't all.

"Hey, I'm going in too. I can't let you three hog all the glory, can I?" Mario asked with a shrug.

"Alright, Link. You go with Sonic, Fox and Mario. We'll take care of things here." Shadow told him.

"What about the other worlds?" Link asked.

Sonic smirked and answered, "Don't worry. From what I've seen. They can take care of themselves."

"But we better hurry. That dot in the sky is now the size of a thumbtack and I think it's still growing." Fox pointed out.

Link looked up and saw that black dot WAS bigger now. It now looked no bigger than his thumbnail and, as usual, it was slowly getting bigger.

Link nodded and then looked ahead. He then seized Fox's arm and Sonic held onto Mario's.

"You may want to hold on for this, guys." Sonic said before speeding off faster than the speed of sound and disappeared.


	35. Chapter 35

**Chapter 34: Fading Hope**

When Link and Sonic stopped running, they were in a big, black abyss. It was a wonder how they were still breathing, but they did see one thing right in front of them. It was a floating chunk of space rock at least as big as the continent of Asia and at least as high as Mount Everest. Link stared, wide-eyed at the chunk of debris.

"Is that…" Link began, but he couldn't exactly finish his sentence.

"My best guess is…Yes. That's the Dragonoid Homeworld and it can't be anything else." Sonic answered as they continued to drift toward it.

"No wonder they're so cranky. They're living on a chunk of rock and nothing else." Mario said in slight realization.

Fox looked around and then asked, "Hey, Link, how did you find this place if we've never been here in our whole life?"

"Well, Tails gave us a device to track any Key Items. So, we decided to follow its signal and it lead us straight here." Link answered.

"Wow," Fox said in amazement, "You're becoming quite the technological guy, aren't you?"

"I figured he was a fast learner." Sonic said, proudly, "Now, let's give these Dragonoids a piece of our minds!"

Within minutes, they were in range of the rock and set foot on it. They saw a cave while they were drifting and decided to waltz through there. Link looked around the place. The cave they entered was as red as blood and felt rather warm like a fire had been lit for several hours. Then, they heard the noise they had been expecting: a bloodcurdling roar. The suddenness of the noise caused all four of them to flinch.

"AAH! D-d-don't worry, Mario. Everything is going to be A-OK…I hope." Mario said, recovering from the roar.

"They call you the 'hero of Mushroom Kingdom'? Sheesh. Get a decent backbone, will ya'?" Fox asked.

"Uh, heheh…Sorry." Mario stammered.

Link, Fox, Mario, and Sonic continued to wander through the labyrinth of caves, trying to find a place that a Dragonoid would call "home base". Suddenly, they heard distinct conversation and quickly ducked into a dark corner.

"The ritual is going as planned, Lord Ryu." The voice of Red Wyvern informed.

"Good job, general. Is the black hole ready?" Ryu asked, expecting one answer.

"Yes, my lord. It should be ready to suck in planets in less than an hour." Blue Firedrake answered.

"All the portals to wipe out any and all resistance have been opened. HEHEHEHE…" Green Salamander said, his maniacal tone still distinguishable.

"And our troops are easily outnumbering any pathetic attack forces these lower life forms are throwing at them." Yellow Drache informed.

"Excellent job. When the universe is ours, I'll make sure that you rule whatever universe you took a key item from." Ryu promised them as they walked past.

As soon as the distinct conversation faded into the depths of the caverns, Link and his friends made a run for it in the opposite direction as the demons that passed them.

"If what they said is true, then we'll have to find the Key Items in less than an hour!" Sonic said, urgently.

"Um, guys? What are these guys talking about black holes about?" Mario asked, easily as stumped as Fox.

"Vector gave us some special information. You see, these guys are going to suck every planet they stole a key item from into a black hole. After that, he'll spew the worlds back out, but it will be populated by nothing BUT DRAGONOIDS." Link answered.

"You mean…IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT!" Mario screamed, but Sonic quickly covered his mouth.

"SHH!! The Dragonoids will hear you!" Sonic hissed.

"Sorry."

After several minutes, the four heroes found that the Dragonoid leaders came from a room that had ten pedestals, a crystal ball, and a throne of sorts. Link guessed that THIS was Ryu's throne room. His eyes searched the whole room until he saw what he was looking for. On the ten pedestals were none other than the key items from the Triforce to the Underwater Ruin.

"Well, at least we know where the Key Items went. Now, the trick is how to get them back…" Link said, spotting what Sonic was looking at.

"Why don't we try that crystal ball?" Sonic asked, pointing it out.

Fox went up to it, picked it up, and inspected it. After a little look-down, Fox suddenly realized that this was similar to the sphere that Concolor once used.

"Link! I think I know the truth now! Ganon didn't give Concolor the orb! It was…" Fox began, but Mario finished it.

"You're saying it was this Ryu clown? I can see your reason…Wait. Are you saying he had something to do with Allos and the Yoshi incident?" Mario asked.

"Knowing him, yes. He probably wanted Allos to release Ganon so he could get all three pieces of the Triforce just by killing the evil king." Sonic answered.

Link suddenly took the orb from Fox and began to concentrate. He wanted to send these back to wherever they came from. Then, to everyone's utter amazement, a red portal opened up. Even Link was slightly amazed at how he did this.

"Get the Key Items and throw them in there! I've created the portal so that it will take them back to their proper home. However, I don't have much time. DO IT NOW!" Link commanded.

"Right away." Fox said, dashing off and seizing the Krazoa Sword.

Sonic and Mario helped and threw as many as the Key Items as they could into the portal. When the tenth one vanished, Link couldn't hold the portal any longer and it ended up shrinking to the size of a fingernail and vanished into thin air. It was all over now.

"ALRIGHT! WE WON!" Sonic cheered, unable to control himself anymore.

The little cheer was short-lived however. The minute Sonic finished his sentence, the whole place seemed to shake and rock shook loose of the walls and the ceiling. Mario virtually tackled Sonic to the ground avoiding a large rock that would have crushed him and Fox quickly hit the dirt as well as Link. When the shaking ended, they started to get back up. But in less than a second, all four of them were knocked off their feet again. When they tried to get up, there was a bone-rattling explosion. When the explosion stopped, all four of them got up, to find that the entire room was gone and there were five people standing at least thirty yards away from them: Ryu, Red Wyvern, Blue Firedrake, Green Salamander, and Yellow Drache. Strangely, Ryu was laughing and so were his generals.

"Did I miss a joke, lizard boy?" Mario asked, trying to taunt his enemy.

"You're too late, you pathetic life forms. The black hole is self sustaining. In a matter of minutes, all you fought for will become the new home for the Dragonoids!" Ryu pointed out.

Link was completely surprised at this. If the black hole could stay alive by itself, they were running out of time now. Then, Link got an idea. Every magic had a source and Link had a pretty good idea of who the black hole's magic source was.

"It's self-sustaining now, huh? Well then, I guess the only way to kill it is to KILL YOU." Link said, pointing his finger at Ryu.

"Correct." Ryu said as though it was pointless.

Sonic grinned as a quizzical look crossed the black dragon's face. Then, the dragon lord clicked his tongue and put his arm forward, palm facing straight up.

"If you're even thinking about taking me on, THAT is your biggest mistake ever." Ryu said as something strange happened.

Red Wyvern suddenly turned into an orb of red light and flew over to Ryu's hand that began to circle it. Shortly after came Blue Firedrake, Green Salamander, and Yellow Drache. When the process was finished, there were four orbs of light circling Ryu's hand; each one the same color as the general. Then, the orbs fused with Ryu's hand and the dark dragon king grinned as a large lightning bolt rained down from the heavens and struck him. A blinding white light shone so bright that it caused all four heroes to shield their eyes. When the light cleared, there was a big, black dragon. It had the same horned back and tail, and the same head. However, the body was no longer humanoid; it looked more like a kind of dinosaur's. The neck was now long and serpentine and Ryu's eyes were red and soulless. However, THAT was nothing.

Out of Ryu's right shoulder came two heads and Link suddenly realized that the one on Ryu's immediate right was the head of Red Wyvern. On Wyvern's right was the head of Green Salamander, whose insane smile was still visible even with those soulless eyes. Then, two heads appeared on his left: Blue Firedrake's and Yellow Drache's. Ryu also grew from twenty feet to sixty feet and his wingspan spread a colossal two-hundred and forty feet. All four heroes were struck dumb and they stared at the massive, five-headed dragon before them. Then, Ryu's head, which was right in the middle, spoke in the exact same tone as the Dragonoid king's only sounding more booming.

"Let's see what you can do, heroes." Ryu said, challengingly.

"It doesn't matter if you fight or not. Lord Ryu shall prevail." Wyvern's head told them.

"According to my calculations, your chances of victory are slim to none!" Firedrake pointed out.

"Sure, it may be four against five, but the size is much more than you can handle." Drache said as he grinned.

"I'm afraid you're no match for power against this, wouldn't you say? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!" Green Salamander cackled.

Sonic smirked and Mario and Fox were pretty stumped as to why. But when Sonic explained something to the Dragonoids, they understood.

"Tough luck. Now that you don't have the Master Emerald to negate the Chaos Emeralds, I'll take you on easily!" Sonic said.

Sonic put his arms apart as seven brightly-colored gems began to slowly form a circle around him. Sonic then began to walk toward them, but Link stopped him.

"Oh no you don't, Sonic. We've been through too much and there's NO WAY you're going in alone." Link reminded.

Sonic got a good look at Fox and Mario, both of which were determined to win this fight at all costs. Sonic smiled as he saw his friends at his side and turned to face the five-headed Dragonoid.

"Alright. If it's a team effort you want, it's a team effort you'll get!" Sonic said as he put his hand forward.

As Sonic concentrated on the almost-boundless energy of the Chaos Emeralds, Link put his gauntlet-clad hand on top of Sonic's. Mario put his hand on Link's and finally, Fox put his on top of Mario's. The glowing circle of Chaos Emeralds began to slowly spin around them, but the speed began to increase and when it was at top speed, Sonic crossed his arms in front of him and suddenly flung them apart. In less than a second, Sonic's eyes were bright red and his fur seemed to be made of pure gold. Link snapped his eyes open and they were exactly the same color as Sonic's, his hair had turned from yellow to silver, and his tunic was now the color of pure gold. Mario's overalls turned fiery orange and his shirt and hat turned the color of a pearl. Fox's fur turned the color of platinum while his suit seemed pretty normal. Link had never felt this much power flowing through him since the Fierce Deity Mask. However, the Chaos Emeralds' power didn't try to possess him. He was gaining strength from the good in his heart and the Chaos Emeralds focused this power into his body.

"Now, how about a REAL fight, lizard-breath?" Link said, glaring at the five-headed behemoth.

"Heh. Bring it on then, weaklings." Ryu challenged.

"Sure thing, lizard lord. Have a taste of the power of TEAMWORK!" Sonic said as he hovered into the air, closely followed by his friends.

Sonic began charging energy in his palms until a huge sphere of energy formed. He threw his hands apart and a huge ball of pure gold energy was unleashed. Link raised his now-golden Master Sword, which was now enfused with the power of the emeralds, and brought it down in a vertical slash that unleashed a disc of energy the same color as Farore's Wind. Mario put his hands together to form a "golden" flame and put his hands forward to unleash a blast of fire the color of the sun. Fox spun his staff around as several energy rings came out with every full rotation. These four attacks would have killed anything they made contact with, but Ryu simply snorted.

"ATTACK!" Ryu barked.

Suddenly, Red Wyvern's mouth opened up and shot a blast of red flame. At the same time, Blue Firedrake unleashed a blast of blue fire. Green Salamander belched green flames and Yellow Drache shot yellow flames. Finally, Ryu unleashed flames the color of amethyst and all five attacks met the heroes' assault head-on. There was a massive explosion of blood-red light and when the blast cleared, the five-headed dragon was unharmed.

"WHAT THE?!" Sonic shouted in surprise.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA! Did you honestly think you would beat us THAT easily? You're bigger fools than we thought!" Ryu taunted before continuing his laugh.

THIS was bad. If attacks at THAT power weren't enough, then the universe was doomed. However, hope would come in the most unlikely way.

_UH-OH! They can't touch Ryu even with the Chaos Emeralds on their sides! What'll they do?!_


	36. Chapter 36

**Chapter 35: Hope arises**

Back in Sonic's world, Knuckles had just finished smashing a Dragonoid's jaw into pieces when the Master Emerald reappeared. Knuckles stared at it, his mouth agape. Jet did as well as Dr. Eggman as the giant jewel hovered in front of them. Then, Knuckles saw something in the gem and it looked like…

"Hey, I can see Sonic through this thing!" Knuckles exclaimed.

"You can?!" Jet asked as he looked into it.

Jet squinted as he looked into it and he saw it. It was Sonic alright, but he was in his super form and was alongside that elf guy he taunted a few days ago along with two people he had never seen before. All of them were fighting a giant, five-headed dragon and Jet's eyes widened.

"It must be some kind of magical energy. There's no scientific proof to it." Eggman pointed out.

"I don't know where Sonic is, but I need to give him as much support as I can." Knuckles said, his fist clenching very tightly.

"Yeah! You da hedgehog, Sonic!" Jet said equally determined.

All the way on the planet Sauria, dinosaurs battled dragon on the jungle planet and then the Krazoa Sword embedded its blade just outside the battleground. A triceratops took notice of it and looked at it in awe. Then, he saw Fox alongside Link and Sonic, and they all seemed to be battling the five-headed behemoth.

"Fox? Is that you?" Tricky asked, not believing his eyes. Tricky then grunted in determination as he said, "You're battling to save us all. I'll be rooting for you all the way, buddy!"

In the Mushroom Kingdom, the Rainbow Star hovered just in front of Luigi, Bowser, and Rawk Hawk and saw a super-powered Mario in front of a monster and alongside Fox, Sonic, and Link.

"Hey, how'd Mario get there?" Luigi asked as he looked at the Rainbow Star.

"Forget about how he got there, greenie. Mario's trying to protect us all and he's willing to give his life for us. So let's give him all the support Mushroom Kingdom can give him!" Bowser said, shaking his fist as though a Dragonoid's neck was in it.

"Wow, Bowser, I never thought you would actually be supporting Gonzales for once." Rawk Hawk pointed out with pride.

"Don't get comfy, you oversized turkey. I'll be trying to crush him if he saves the universe." Bowser pointed out.

Around the universe, the key items showed citizens all over the universe what was going on and they gave every bit of confidence they could to the four heroes. However, they needed a good bit more than this.

Back in Hyrule, the Triforce arrived in the middle of Hyrule Field and everyone saw it. Shadow paused in front of it after he put a foot in a Dragonoid's visage and saw Link, Sonic, Mario, and Fox battling a five-headed dragon. Then Vector and his team walked up to Shadow with a kind of jewel.

"Hey, Shadow, Tails made this for you in case something like this happened." Vector said, handing Shadow the emerald.

Shadow inspected it and gave Vector a curious look.

"It's a fake emerald." Espio pointed out.

"Yeah. It can do anything a real Chaos Emerald can do EXCEPT make you go into your super form." Charmy added.

"Thanks. I'll need it for something." Shadow thanked before storing it away.

Without warning, a Dragonoid ran up to Shadow, wielding its razor-sharp claws at Shadow. The black hedgehog simply put his hand up and produced a Chaos Spear the size of a harpoon that blew the reptilian monster in half. He smiled as he inspected what he had just done.

"Well," He said in amusement, "That's pretty handy."

Shortly after Shadow killed the Dragonoid, Slippy arrived with a machine gun in his hand and he looked like he had run a mile. When he caught his breath, he started to speak like there was no tomorrow.

"SHADOW! I just got a message from Krystal and Zelda! THE DRAGONOIDS ARE AT THE CASTLE!" Slippy exclaimed.

Shadow flinched and remained still for a second or two. Then, he gritted his teeth, seized Slippy by the arm and vanished in a flash of light.

In just one second, they were at the castle gates. Slippy wasn't kidding; there were TONS of Dragonoids here. They were swarming the castle like vultures over a carcass and some were trying to break the doors down while some simply flew through windows. Shadow was definitely mad now and charged just when Slippy loaded his gun. Shadow vanished in a flash of blue light and reappeared in front of a Dragonoid. He brought his fist smashing into the dragon demon's visage, snapping the upper spinal chord, and teleported away to pound both of his fists on another Dragonoid's cranium to crush its skull. He teleported yet again to bring his steel boot into a Dragonoid's chin and brought its head snapping upward, breaking its neck.

Slippy pulled the trigger on his machine gun and held onto his blaster as he blasted Dragonoid after Dragonoid with yellow energy blasts. Dragonoids fell to the ground with black blood oozing out of their wounds and Slippy continued to shoot them down like it was hunting season.

"NO MERCY! DIE YOU STUPID LIZARDS!" Slippy shouted.

Several Dragonoids were trying to torch Shadow, but his whole body was pulsating with red energy and the blasts of fire didn't even faze him or even singe his fur. The black hedgehog pulled back his arms and then threw them out, producing a perfect Chaos Blast. The red blast of energy flew out a good twenty feet and blasted any Dragonoid within its radius. As soon as Shadow used Chaos Blast three more times, Slippy caught up with him. However, Slippy didn't say a word when Shadow seized him by the arm and teleported again. Someone's life was at stake and he was going to save her even if it meant his life.

Shadow and Slippy reappeared just inside the castle and began to search the castle for Zelda and Krystal. The black hedgehog was running like a rabbit escaping an approaching eagle and the situation was just as good.

"If those lizards even TOUCH her, I'll make them wish they were never spawned!" Shadow cursed as Slippy struggled to catch up.

"Yeah, you show 'em, Shadow. Just…wait…up!" Slippy panted as he sprinted after the black hedgehog.

Suddenly, a loud wail caught Shadow's attention. It had caught his attention because that wail was Zelda's. Shadow's jet-boots kicked in and he moved with speed to rival Sonic's and when he kicked the doors open, a seven-foot Dragonoid was waiting for him. It growled in confusion, but when he saw Shadow, he roared and thundered after him with its mouth open wide.

"CHAOS SPEAR!" Shadow yelled as he threw a yellow energy arrow at the beast.

The arrow went right through the Dragonoid's chest and it fell to the floor with a loud "THUD". It twitched for a while, all the while clutching its wound, and finally, it breathed its last.

Shadow looked up and saw several smaller Dragonoids flapping after him like bats and Shadow didn't have time to charge another Chaos Spear. Shadow whirled around and punched one right on the back, sending the monster down. Shadow then took his boot and stomped on the Dragonoid's head, crushing its skull. However, another one was coming for him faster than he could react. But before it even touched him, a red blast of energy blasted it and it exploded in black goo. Slippy had charged his blaster and shot the Dragonoid right out of the sky. He blew the smoke from the barrel away and then pocketed his gun.

"Yeah. Slippy da' frog." Slippy said, trying to be cool.

"Hmph. I admit your shooting is good, Toad." Shadow said, looking at Slippy through the corner of his eye.

Slippy scoffed and then sarcastically said, "You're welcome."

Shadow looked around and saw Krystal on the floor and Zelda on her bed. Both of them were clutching their round anterior and Shadow realized what was going on before Slippy even said a word.

"OH NO!" Slippy exclaimed, "I forgot the babies are due today!"

Slippy went over to Krystal and spread her legs apart. He had never done this before, but he was mainly acting on instinct, so that was good enough.

"Okay, Krystal, just one more push…" Slippy said.

Shadow couldn't hear the rest from Krystal's cries in pain. Then, there were the cries of another as Slippy picked up a rather furry baby, but something was wrong. Something was holding on to this baby girl's ankle and Slippy, instinctively, tried to gently pull it out. It was another infant, but this was a boy while the other was a girl.

"Krystal! You have twins!" Slippy said, wrapping the two newborns in cloth and giving them to her.

After she caught her breath, Krystal spoke for the first time. Although her voice was rather quiet, she was okay.

"Oh, they're beautiful…Thank you, Slippy." Krystal sighed.

Things were okay, but then Zelda's wails intensified and Slippy raced over to her. He felt her belly and something was definitely wrong.

"Oh no…Zelda! Your baby hasn't gone into the right position! We'll have to use a Cesarean section. I'll go get the supplies!" Slippy said, preparing to run out the door.

Slippy hadn't even crossed the room when Shadow teleported in front of him and spread his arms out, blocking the frog's way.

"NO!" Shadow said, defiantly.

"Listen, Shadow. If I don't, she'll die!" Slippy said, trying to push past the black hedgehog.

Shadow, however, was much stronger than he looked and proved more than powerful enough to push Slippy back. Then, Shadow put on a face that made Slippy believe him.

"The Cesarean section will take too long, because when you're finished, we'll all be dead. And even if you do get out there, the Dragonoids will be waiting for you!" Shadow told him.

"Well, what do you suppose we do then?!" Slippy asked urgently.

"I can help." Shadow answered as he turned away from Slippy and strode over to Zelda.

Zelda didn't know what Shadow was going to do and she had heard Sonic's stories of how Shadow could go from being a not-too-bad guy to being a berserker in seconds. But there was something about Shadow that she trusted and she didn't even try to get away.

Shadow put a hand on Zelda's stomach and closed his eyes, remembering Mewtwo's teachings. He needed perfect focus for what he was going to do. If he did this too high or too low, he might end up doing something he would never do. After at least five seconds, he snapped his eyes open and said two words.

"Chaos Control."

For a minute, there was a blue light. When it faded, nothing appeared to happen. Then, as if it was a miracle, Zelda's breathing eased and there was the cry of a newborn infant. Shadow turned to Zelda with her newborn daughter in his arms. Zelda took her new daughter in her arms and wrapped her in warm blankets before hugging it close. She then looked up at Shadow and could only say two words to him.

"Thank you." She said in a mere whisper.

Shadow nodded, but then realized that there was something going on universes away.

"Alright, Zelda. Link is still out there and he's battling with Sonic, Fox, and Mario to save us all. We need to give them all the support they need. The fate of the universe depends on it." Shadow pointed them out.

"Alright, Shadow." Zelda said.

She then closed her eyes and focused all her thoughts on Link, on Sonic, on everyone fighting to prevent the apocalypse. Krystal did the same as well as Slippy and Shadow.

Light-years away, Ryu's new, five-headed form was laughing at the four's feeble attack. However, several voices seemed to speak from an invisible crowd.

"You can do it, Sonic!" The voice of Vector cheered.

"You da' man, Fox!" Falco seemed to say.

"Who's-a number one?! MARIO!" Luigi said directly from Mushroom Kingdom. 

"Please, Link. We're all right behind you. You can do it!" The voice of Zelda said.

Then, several other voices spoke and they could all feel the energy rushing through their veins. Link noticed that the glow around all four of them was now a good bit brighter now and a new power was flowing through his veins.

"ALRIGHT! Now we're talkin'!" Sonic said.

"Let's-a go!" Mario said, fidgeting with his hat.

"Alright! Move out!" Fox said, putting up a fist.

Link glared at the towering behemoth before him and narrowed his eyes. Then, he suddenly let everything out. Though he had barely known Ryu for a day or two, he was about as enraged as a bull.

"Ryu, your reign ends HERE and NOW!" Link said, pointing his sword at Ryu like an accusing finger.

Ryu took in Link's threat, chuckled, and then broke into laughter. As soon as he started, the other four heads started laughing an almost-roaring laugh.

"Let's see if your actions can back up your words, fools." The Dragonoid king challenged.

"If you want to defeat Lord Ryu, you'll have to come up against all of us!" Red Wyvern also challenged.

"It's one thing to say what you're going to do, but it's a completely different thing to actually DO what you're going to do." Firedrake pointed out like the know-it-all he is.

"Ooh, you'll beat us when you survive a supernova! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" Salamander cackled.

"Huh! If you're going to beat the Dragonoids by yourself, then you must have brains the size of an ameba's." Yellow Drache spat.

Sonic scoffed and then said, "Well then you've got nothing to lose."

Then, with a combination of war cries and dragon roars, the battle began. The battle that would decide the fate of the entire universe was beginning right now and only four people stood between the Dragonoids and Universal domination.

_WHEW! Zelda almost died! Thank the Lord for Shadow! NOW, things'll get interesting..._


	37. Chapter 37

**Chapter 36: The Dark Dragon Duel**

After the charge, Ryu just couldn't wait anymore and charged energy that gathered in his mouth. All five of Ryu's heads followed his lead, inhaled deeply, and exhaled fire of their respective color. However, all four of the good guys fighting him found ways of repelling it. Link took his sword and swung it at the green blast, and with a flash, the green fire was blocked. Mario blocked the red one's flame with a blast of his own. Fox spun his staff and the yellow flames splashed harmlessly off like rain on an umbrella. The blue flames were easily deflected when Sonic put his arms up, palms forward and the flames bounced off at another angle. Ryu's red eyes widened in surprise and so did the other four pairs.

"WHAT?!" Ryu asked in surprise.

"How could Ryu be blocked THAT easily?" Wyvern asked, equally shocked.

"THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE!" Firedrake said, looking at Ryu.

"That's so shocking, it's not even funny!" Salamander said, not even bothering to laugh.

"Well, THAT'S new." Drache said, surprised that Salamander didn't even giggle.

Link, Fox, Sonic, and Mario had just deflected his attacks when they proved to be equal to his power. Now, Ryu saw them for the threat that they were…too late.

Link charged with his sword out and was ready to slice Green Salamander's head in two, but the green dragonoid simply curved to the side to evade the attack and tried snapping at Link with his massive jaws. However, the only thing Salamander caught in his mouth was a whole lot of nothing. Salamander struck forward like a cobra only missing Link by inches. Green Salamander belched green flames at Link, causing the Hylian Hero to fly to the left and used this as a good distraction to reach forward and smash his head into Link. Link somersaulted through the air and Salamander was there to meet him again. Link quickly regained his balance and performed a perfect horizontal slash that caught a good piece of Salamander's green scales. Normally, the Master Sword couldn't have harmed him all that much, but since it was enfused with the power of the Chaos Emeralds, it cleaved the green head right off its neck. Ryu roared in pain as the green neck and head vanished in green light and reappeared as Green Salamander. Salamander was floating through space, remaining perfectly still and continued to float through the abyss of space. Link smirked as he saw the crazed warrior breathe his last and float aimlessly through space. Then, in the second before going back to battle, Link noticed that Salamander still had the humorous smile on his face as he floated lifelessly through nothingness. Perhaps he thought death was funny, too.

"I never liked him anyway." He commented.

"WHAT?!" Ryu asked in surprise.

Ryu barely had time to respond when Fox flew forward and struck Drache's head with his staff. Since the staff was also powered by the emeralds, the yellow Dragonoid felt like he had been clunked on the head with a sizeable rock. Drache shook the cobwebs out of his head, regained his posture, and blasted yellow flames at Fox, who countered with a few energy rings to block the attack. Drache paused for one second too long, because Fox spun his staff again and created a wave of energy that severed the yellow head, returning Drache to his original self and sending him to Green Salamander's fate.

Ryu growled as he retaliated and shot purple flames at Fox just when red flame shot from Wyvern's head. Unfortunately, Link blocked the amethyst inferno with a strike of his sword and Mario blasted golden flame to intercept Wyvern's fire. Unfortunately, they forgot about Blue Firedrake's head as it lashed forward like a cobra. It virtually had Mario, Fox, and Link in its teeth when a golden streak flew forward and smashed into its visage. The impact sent the blue head cringing backward. The blue head shook Sonic off its nose and tried snapping at him. His jaws closed around Sonic and tried to keep them shut, but Sonic, with his newfound strength, pried the jaws open and flew out just when they slammed shut again. Firedrake blasted blue flame at Sonic again, but the golden hedgehog simply created an energy orb. When the fire touched the orb, the sphere of energy began to grow rather than blow up. When Firedrake stopped, the orb was easily the size of a house and Sonic grinned as he chucked it at the blue head like a baseball. The orb collided with Firedrake and the serpentine head screeched in pain as it disintegrated. Ryu, surprised at how a simple hedgehog did that, stood still for one second too long.

Mario shot a pillar of fire at the red head and as soon as it engulfed Wyvern, it burned the red Dragonoid into space dust. In less than a second after that, Sonic created a huge energy orb just when Link created a vertical slash. Fox joined in with his energy ring attack and Mario unleashed a giant golden fireball. The result was an explosion that made an atomic bomb look like a firecracker.

"YEAH!" Sonic cheered as he put up his fist.

"Uh-huh! GO MARIO! GO MARIO! WHOOP DRAGONOID BUTT!" Mario said, doing a funky dance.

"Quiet!" Link shouted.

Sonic and Mario stopped their cheering in confusion. However, they noticed that Fox and Link were staring right where the blast should have been. There was Ryu, standing there with his head alone on his body and…he was laughing.

"Pathetic fools. You may have killed my generals, but you will not kill ME with such ease. You've just brought about my WRATH!" Ryu roared.

Ryu closed his eyes and then snapped them open, revealing red eyes and yellow pupils that made him look even more like a monster. Then, his whole body began to change. His neck shortened and his muscles strengthened until he bore surprising resemblance to a tyrannosaurus. His spikes lengthened and sharpened until they looked less like spikes and more like jagged blades. His arms lengthened in proportion to his body size until they were about half as long as his legs, which were more like T-rex feet. The spikes on Ryu's tail turned into razor-sharp blades the color of an amethyst and Ryu spread out his large wings, which were now blood red, and a blade came out of each of his wing joints. (Remember Godzilla from the American movie? Picture him but with wings and a blade-covered tail.) A low growl emanated from this abomination and then let loose a roar that would have quaked the earth itself.

"Whoa." Link said in amazement.

"Yikes!" Mario said.

"That is one FREAKY mutation!" Fox pointed out.

"I can hardly blame you." Sonic agreed.

Then, Ryu spoke for the first and last time in this form.

"Ultimate form or not, you must realize YOU ARE DOOMED!"

Link smirked.

"Let's see if your actions can back up your mouth, Ryu." He challenged.

Ryu, not really liking his own words used against him, let loose another bloodcurdling roar. Then, with a single flap of his wings, he charged.

All four of them scattered, causing Ryu to fly harmlessly past them. Sonic flew like a falcon and brought a huge sphere of energy into Ryu's body. This was the same sphere that brought death to Blue Firedrake. But when the sphere hit THIS GUY, it didn't even leave a scratch. Ryu's new scales were like body armor and, though it didn't hurt, he turned to see who would do such a thing. He raised his massive hand and swatted Sonic away like a fly. Sonic somersaulted through the air and Ryu was about to devour him when a blast of golden flame shot him right in the forehead. Mario's attack proved just about as successful as Sonic's and didn't even leave a trace of burning. Ryu flapped once with his mighty wings and created a massive gust that blew Mario back a good hundred feet. Ryu spun, without looking, and planted his blade-covered tail into Fox. Fox flew backward and caught himself in mid-fall as Link created an energy disc from his sword, which again proved unsuccessful. Ryu snapped at Link, only to see the agile Hylian shoot away like a golden bullet.

"Man! What does it take to beat this guy?!" Link cursed as he saw that his attack had absolutely no effect.

Ryu's plates suddenly began to glow a bright purple as his reptilian face turned into a malevolent grin. As he opened his mouth, out came a huge blast of energy with two smaller ones spiraling around it. Link quickly raced away and saw the blast hit the asteroid they were on just seconds ago. When the blast hit, it destroyed the whole space rock with an explosion greater than that of a meteor impact and created a new asteroid field. Link, Fox, Mario, and Sonic united this time and combined all their attacks to bombard Ryu. Sonic's energy sphere hit first, closely followed by Mario's golden flame. Then Link's Master Sword energy disc hit and Fox's energy wave topped it all off. When the energy rings hit when all others did, it created a massive explosion.

"No way he's gonna survive THAT!" Link said, determined to see this Dragonoid die.

"YES!" Mario cheered.

"As much as I hate to say it, that would have been TOO easy." Fox said, cautiously.

"Uh, Mario? Don't cheer just yet." Sonic said, pointing to the cloud.

As Mario looked, he found that his cheer was for nothing, because Ryu soared out of the cloud with a loud ROAR and swatted Mario, Fox, and Link with his tail. They all scattered through space and regained their balance just when Ryu flew toward them and had his arms raised to swat them, but Sonic quickly flew forward and collided with Ryu's nose. Ryu felt like he had received a punch there, but thanks to his thick scales, all the blow did was send him back a bit and jar him. He took care of the golden hedgehog by exhaling sharply through his nostrils. Sonic flew backward and Link went to meet him with a stab of the Master Sword that only resulted in clanging metal and impact sparks. Ryu turned sharply and backhanded Link with his mighty hand, sending the Hylian hero tumbling through space. Mario and Fox dove like falcons at him, hoping for some kind of injury to show. It didn't, seeing as Ryu simply withstood it without a scratch and blasted them with that same blast that destroyed the hunk of rock. Even in their super-forms, they still felt the pain of the blow and went spiraling backward. Link, suddenly seeing a situation, did the only thing he could when he was faced with a tough problem.

"Fall back!" Link shouted.

Sonic, Fox, and Mario shot a few strange looks at Link, but then saw Ryu gathering energy and quickly retreated, the blast missing their toes by inches. They zipped about and found some shelter behind an asteroid, but it wouldn't be long before Ryu sniffed them out, so they had to act fast.

"I don't know how to stop this guy. We've tried projectiles, physical attacks, and team attacks but we haven't even done the slightest amount of damage to him. How can we hurt him?" Link asked, angrily.

"I think I may know…" Sonic said.

"You do?" Mario asked.

"I didn't see any weak point." Fox pointed out.

"Ah, but you didn't look everywhere, did you?" Sonic asked.

"What do you mean? I checked every part of his body and every bit seems to be armor-plated in attack-resistant scales." Fox said, trying to make sense.

"What about the mouth? I saw the inside of his mouth when he almost blasted us and it's not armor-plated." Sonic answered.

Everyone nodded in approvement, but Link's hate for Ryu was fueling him to finish this himself. He held up his sword and Sonic went up to him.

"I'll get him." Link said, almost going out from behind the asteroid.

"No. Ryu's only going to open his mouth long enough for us to strike when he uses his energy blast. If we try, we'll have to be REALLY fast." Sonic pointed out, pulling Link back behind the asteroid.

"So, we'll have to MAKE him TRY and blast us." Fox said, answering the problem.

"Let's-a go, then! We have a universe to save!" Mario said, putting his fist up.

"For once, Mario," Link said with a slight grin, "I'm going to heed your words."

Link, Sonic, Fox, and Mario came out from behind the asteroid and saw Ryu, searching for them. He was still trying to sniff them out, so he didn't know their position. And they needed to let him know of their presence in order to attack, so they did the only thing they could.

"HEY! LIZARD LORD! OVER HERE!" They all shouted.

Ryu's red eyes looked to his right and then narrowed as he saw all four of them line up with Mario in the lead, Fox close behind, then Sonic, and finally Link following behind. Then, with a low, challenging roar, Ryu soared at them like an eagle after its prey. When he did this, the heroes knew that it was time to do or die. They just hoped that they would DO.

Mario prepared to send a golden fireball down Ryu's nose. However, Ryu simply blew him away with a single flap of his wings. But just as Mario tumbled away, Fox charged with his staff out. Ryu caught him with his tail and would have laughed if he could. He was about to blast the two he swatted with his ultimate energy blast when Sonic rushed up and caught him in the nose. Ryu grunted in surprise and snorted Sonic off just in time to close his jaws on the incoming Link, swallowing him whole. For everyone else, all hope had just faded and the universe was doomed.

"NOOOO!!!" Sonic, Mario, and Fox said all at once.

For one second, all was quiet save the echo of Sonic, Mario, and Fox's screams. Then suddenly, Ryu started screeching in pain and kept trying to pick something out of his mouth with his claws. When he opened his mouth, Sonic glimpsed Link standing on the dark dragon's tongue with his sword stuck up the beast's mouth. If this had been a normal sword, this wouldn't have done anything. However, since this was the Master Sword, and it had been combined with the powers of the Chaos Emeralds, its power was now much more powerful. Link was putting all his weight on his blade and then he got an idea. When he dug it in as deep as it would go, he unleashed a blast of energy that went right through the roof of Ryu's mouth, dribbling black blood everywhere. Ryu's screeches increased and his attempts to get Link out of his mouth increased.

"He can't do that alone!" Fox pointed out, seeing Ryu almost catch Link with his claws.

"You're right. We've got to help him!" Sonic said, putting his fist up.

"Y'know, Sonic, if we all die like this, I just want to tell you I've always admired your speed!" Mario said quickly.

"Wow, Mario, I didn't know you cared." Sonic pointed out.

Then, in a streak of several golden-orangish lights, they dove at Ryu like falcons.

Link continued to try and keep his sword in Ryu's mouth, but he wasn't doing a good job. Then, he heard a familiar voice.

"Link! WE'RE GOING TO BLAST RYU! GET OUT OF HIS MOUTH!" Sonic's voice shouted.

Link looked out of Ryu's mouth and saw his three friends coming to his rescue. What was he going to do? He didn't have time to fly out of Ryu's mouth before the blasts hit. However, he didn't have much time to consider it, because his friends were already gathering energy at a phenomenal rate.

Sonic, Fox, and Mario couldn't stop now. If they did, they would have to retreat because Link's assault wouldn't slow Ryu down one bit. And attacks at that magnitude would be enough to damage someone even if they were in their super form. Link didn't seem to worried and seemed to be gathering energy, but he wasn't using it. Then came the moment Sonic had been fearing; the energy stopped gathering. Without further hesitation, Sonic emitted the biggest energy orb he could summon. Fox produced the most powerful energy rings possible and Mario produced the hottest fire he could muster. Link, while in Ryu's mouth, saw the attacks coming for him and his mind raced with almost lightspeed. Then he thought that if Sonic could use Chaos Control, then maybe he could. However, he had to act almost immediately; possibly microseconds.

Just when Link got the idea, all three attacks hit Ryu's mouth and continued down his windpipe and into his lungs and other internal organs. Ryu felt his organs burn like a backfire of his own blast went down his own throat. Ryu roared in pain as he slowly changed back to his original, twenty-foot self, and began falling through space. Then, he began to speak in a very pained voice.

"NO! WHY IS THIS?! I AM THE ULTIMATE EXISTENCE! I'M DESTINED TO BE SUPREME RULER OF THIS UNIVERSE! I AM THE DRAGONOID KING! GRAAAAAAAAAAAARRGGHH!!!" Ryu cursed as he fell through the abyss.

Back in the other worlds, Dragonoids started to recieve unimaginable pain. In less than a second, they collapsed onto the ground and vanished in a puff of blood-red smoke. As most people looked up, the black hole, which was looked the size of a hurricane cloud, started to get smaller until it shrunk right out of existence. Several people stood there as clouds began to part, making way for the sun and the birds began to sing again. The heroes had won, but one person was missing…

Sonic just stood there, gazing at the dead Dragonoid falling through space. Fox and Mario flew over to him and put a hand on both of his shoulders. Fox, however, was the only one with something to say.

"He was very brave, Sonic. He gave his life for the universe and we have to honor that." Fox said, holding back tears.

"It's not that. It's just…I seem to be the one who killed him. I'll never forgive myself for this." Sonic said, in what could only be described as grief.

Then, there was an unnoticeable flash of green light and someone appeared behind Mario. This thing went over to Sonic and said three words.

"What's wrong, buddy?"

Sonic knew that voice and his eyes widened in surprise. Then, slowly, he turned around and saw Link right behind him, his red eyes sparkling like rubies. Sonic's own red eyes sparkled as his face broke into a smile that almost split his cheek line.

"LINK! H-How did you…" Sonic began, but Link answered before he even finished.

"I used Chaos Control to teleport before the attacks hit me. I knew you had to use your most powerful moves, so I had to stay put if you wanted a good hit on Ryu. What? Bad idea?" Link explained.

"You had us worried SICK, MISTER!" Mario said, poking Link in the chest with his finger.

Everyone shared a laugh at what Mario did and it lasted for just a few seconds. Then, after the laughing died down, Sonic knew what had to be done.

"Alright, guys. It's time to get us back to Hyrule. I believe we have friends there, waiting for us." The super hedgehog said.

"Yeah. I've been longing to see my world without the Dragonoids. Let's go." Link said, accepting Sonic's words.

"I don't see why not. I wouldn't mind seeing Hyrule one last time before the adventure's over." Mario said, shrugging.

"Of course, Link. And I believe we have more than a home waiting for us. We have family and friends. So, c'mon, Sonic. Let's get us back home." Fox said, agreeing.

"Alright, then. Everyone, circle around." Sonic said.

They did so as Sonic began to concentrate energy from his body. The golden hedgehog closed his eyes and then snapped them open as he shouted two words.

"CHAOS…CONTROL!"

In a flash of golden light, the war of the Dragonoids was over. Fifty thousand years of terror had finally come to an end…

_VICTORY!!! SO LONG, RYU! HAVE A HAPPY AFTERLIFE!_


	38. Chapter 38

**Chapter 37: Time to go home**

Zelda walked out of the castle with her newborn daughter in her arms. Right behind her was Krystal, who was holding her newborn twins, closely followed by Shadow the hedgehog, and Slippy Toad. Then came a bright light equally as bright as the sun and, as soon as it appeared, it disappeared.

Right in the middle of Hyrule Field was Link, Fox McCloud, Mario, and Sonic the hedgehog. All of the Dragonoids had disappeared hours ago and the birds were beginning to sing again. All four people who stopped Ryu were floating in midair until their glows subsided and they touched ground before returning to their proper form.

"LINK! YOU DID IT!" Zelda shouted as she ran over to Link and caught him in a one-arm embrace.

Link then took notice of the bundle in her arms and his face melted.

"Sorry I couldn't be here for our baby's birth. However, I made up for it by making our universe a safe place to be." Link apologized.

"Don't worry. But I owe a good deal of debt to Shadow. If it wasn't for him, I would have died in childbirth." Zelda pointed out.

Link paused and looked at Shadow, a look of shock on his face. However, Link still had enough in him to tell the black hedgehog one thing.

"Thank you."

"I swore to protect Zelda and I kept it. I must tell you now that using Chaos Control on the infant will have some effect on it." Shadow pointed out, "Because I used Chaos Control, I put a little bit of myself in her. So, you're her biological father, but she'll have a few of my traits. So you could say I am…a third parent."

"Don't worry." Link said, "You saved my wife from certain death and you did the right thing. We'll love her anyway and tell her what happened when she's older."

Krystal hurried up to Fox and fell right into his arms. When she regained her strength, she stood up with shimmering eyes.

"Oh, you're back! All the while you were gone, I thought someone might have killed you." She said, suppressing the tears.

"It's okay. I'm here now. I'm just sorry that I couldn't stay, Krystal. I had to make the whole cosmos a safe place for our family." Fox said, taking one of the twins in his arms.

"I accept your apology." Krystal said, smiling, but with a tear running down her cheek.

The Chaotix Crew raced up to Sonic and gave him a welcome worthy of a hero. They were whooping and cheering like their favorite team won the Super Bowl.

"YOU DID IT, SONIC!" Vector cheered as he and his buddies lifted the blue hedgehog into the air.

"I had total confidence in you." Espio said, obviously trying to hide something.

"YEAH! You da' hedgehog!" Charmy cheered.

"Alright, alright. I like the attention, but could you please put me down?" Sonic asked, uneasily.

The Chaotix did so and then Sonic was met by an ongoing crowd of every character to visit Hyrule from Donkey Kong to Mewtwo. However, the time had come for most things to go where the whole adventure was leading up to. But then Sonic had an idea.

"Hey, guys! Anyone got a camera?" Sonic asked, loud enough for everyone to hear.

Falco, who had just landed in that area, hopped out of his Arwing and answered that question easily.

"Yeah, we got one, blue boy. It's in Great Fox in Peppy's room. You can't miss it." Falco said, pointing to the large ship with his thumb.

"Gotcha!" Sonic said before dashing off.

Mewtwo had slowly gone up to Shadow while everyone else was chattering and was having a telepathic conversation with the black hedgehog.

"Congratulations, Shadow." Mewtwo said, a half-smile crossing his usually dark face.

"What?" Shadow thought, knowing Mewtwo could hear him.

"You have proven yourself worthy of being a hero." Mewtwo answered, "You saved countless lives in the last two years and you defended someone close to you."

"Hmph. It was nothing." Shadow answered, a cocky half-grin on his face.

"Let's be fair, Shadow. You helped bring peace to the universe; I just fought the war." Mewtwo said, a smile on his face, though his eyes didn't shift.

Then came Sonic with the camera. He set it up and aimed the lens at a gathering of every character he met in Hyrule. Pikachu and Kirby were on Donkey Kong's shoulders, Samus had removed her helmet and was smiling right next to the big ape, and the Chaotix Crew were next to her in different poses. Shadow was right near the front with his arms folded and his eyes focused while Mewtwo on his right in a similar pose. Falco, Peppy, and Slippy were near the front of the crowd and Mario was just in front of Peppy. On Mario's immediate left was an empty space, and just on that space's left were Fox, Krystal, Link, and Zelda. Fox and Krystal were holding one of each of the twins while Zelda was holding her daughter and Link had a hand on her shoulder.

"Okay, smile!" Sonic said as he set the timer and sped right over.

The blue blur took his place next to Mario and gave the thumbs' up just before the camera flashed. Several photos of the group shot came out of the camera and Sonic sped away, handing everyone a photograph. Now came the worst part of any story.

"This is it, guys. It's time to say goodbye." Sonic pointed out.

Link looked down, but then Fox spoke up.

"Hey, Link. We'll see you again. Dimensional traveling isn't so difficult now that we've experienced it. We're bound to see Hyrule again." Fox said, a smile on his face.

"That will be the day I look forward to." Link said as he shook his friend's hand.

The Star Wolf Team glared at the Star Fox Team as Wolf stepped forward.

"Of course you realize, as soon as we get home, we're enemies again. Do you understand?" Wolf asked.

"Yeah. We'll be sure Sonic sends you guys AND Ridley back first." Fox answered. 

Ridley let out a low, mechanical growl before skulking off and Sonic started to glow with a golden light as the power of the Chaos Emeralds enfused within his body. He positioned his hands so that his palms were facing Star Wolf and Ridley at the same time and in a flash of light, and the words "Chaos Control" all four of them were gone. Then, Sonic activated Chaos Control again and opened up a portal the color of the summer sun.

"Alright, it's time for all of you guys to get going." Sonic told them.

"I'll be seeing you later!" Kirby said as he waved goodbye.

"Take care, Link." Samus said before hopping in after Kirby.

"Friends forever, Link!" Mario said before waltzing into the portal.

"Adios, amigos!" Donkey Kong joked as he lumbered inside.

However, the big monkey went in, but his tie didn't. Then a hairy arm reached out of the portal and took the tie.

"Farewell." Mewtwo said as he floated inside.

"Don't forget to write!" Pikachu said happily as he disappeared as well.

As soon as Pikachu vanished, Fox, along with his team and family, went into Great Fox as Falco leapt into his Arwing and took off. Great Fox produced a strange, green laser that turned into an interdimensional portal and both spaceships vanished in its green light.

Super Sonic turned to Link and his red eyes met Link's blue ones. Strangely, Sonic was smiling.

"It's been a long and crazy journey, Link. But now it's time for me and my buddies to get going." Sonic said, glancing over at the Chaotix and Shadow.

Shadow nodded and the Chaotix were close to follow. They all gathered in a circle around Sonic as his whole body seemed to vanish in light equal to that of the sun. Link shielded his eyes as the intensity of the light increased and then decreased. When the light faded, Sonic was gone and so were his friends.

"Goodbye, Sonic." Link said as he stared into nothingness.

Zelda went up to him, a sorrowful look on her face.

"I know it's not easy, Link. However, we must move on and remember what Fox said. We will see them again someday, but not now." Zelda said in a calming voice, "Now, come on. Let's go home and prepare for family life."

A half-smile crossed Link's face as he slowly got the feeling in his legs back. When he recovered, he continued to go home. If his friends from other dimensions did visit him, he would be prepared for anything.


	39. Chapter 39

**Chapter 38: Questions, Answers, and Author's commentary**

I hope you have enjoyed the Dimensional Trilogy. This series of stories took almost a year to make and for those of you who were there when "Interdimensional Relapse" began, this is probably the saddest moment of your time on this series of crossovers. I too knew that it would come to an end, so I made Dimension Merging the best I could with its villains, its story, its comedy, and its memorable characters. Below are some questions some people ask throughout the books of how I came up with characters, the different worlds, and various other stuff. I hope these will answer some of your questions.

Q: Where did you get the names for your villains?  
A: I get this a lot. Concolor, the first villain got his name from the scientific word "Felis concolor" which means "cougar". Allos got his name from a kind of dinosaur called "Allosaurus", which was the T-rex before T-rex was T-rex (Kind of a tongue-twister, huh?) Ryu got his name from the Japanese word for "Dragon" and his minions like Red Wyvern, Blue Firedrake, and Green Salamander all got their last names from different words for "Dragon". White Amphis' name is a shortened version of the word "Amphisbaena": A dragon with two heads on both ends of its body.

Q: Why did you choose the Chaotix Crew for the humor section of this story?  
A: On the Sonic the hedgehog TV show, "Sonic X", Vector and his gang were always causing trouble wherever they went, so I decided that their antics would be good for a laugh or two. What? Bad idea?

Q: Will you make prequels or any more sequels to the Dimensional Trilogy?  
A: I don't plan on making prequels, seeing as you know the history of most of these game characters pretty well. And I'm not making any more sequels, otherwise it wouldn't be called a "Trilogy". However, I was working on a kind of "Gag reel", but you'd have to read all three books before you understand them.

Q: Do you know most of these characters?  
A: Of course I do! I've known Mario and Sonic for most of my life and Fox and Link are some of the best video game heroes I know! And of COURSE I know Concolor, Allos, Ryu, Teal, etc. I made them up myself!

Q: How did you get the word "Dragonoid"?  
A: I got "Dragonoid" from two words. The first part is pretty obvious: "Dragon". I got the second part from the word "Humanoid" and I mixed these two words together for that word.

Q: Where did you get the Dragonoids' voracious behavior?  
A: It all started when I watched the movie "Reign of Fire". I kinda combined the dragons on that movie with "Star Fox: Assault's" Aparoids, but increased their dangerous level tenfold to create this vicious species. Need I say more?

Q: Does this story have anything to do with "Sages' Swords"?  
A: Two words: "N" and "O". If it was, Saria would be grown up and Link would probably tell of future tales. (I won't spoil it though)

Q: Why does Shadow have a crush on Zelda?  
A: Read Interdimensional relapse and you'll know why.

Q: Why does Link marry Zelda and not Malon?  
A: You again. I've told people this once and I'm not going to answer you again, I'm a ZeLinker and PROUD of it! And in IDR when Vector screws up with the hero and the farm girl, he'll explain my reason. Capiche? Capiche.

That's about all the questions I've received and I won't answer any more unless they pop into my head. After all this work, I'll see what I can do. Enjoy the other stories I wrote and those I will soon come to write.


End file.
